A Sustainability Management Model for Local Government: An Explanatory Study

A Study of Local Government in Africa through Participatory Action Research (PAR)

The impact analysis of media attention on local environmental governance based on four-party evolutionary game

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between citizen participation and the level of trust in government’s decisions and policies; as well as examining the impact of disclosure of information on the level of citizens’ engagement with governments’ projects. In addition, testing the real motives behind Egyptian citizens’ participation in financing national projects. The study is applied to the “New Suez Canal,” which was finished in only one year opposing the three years implementation period suggested by some studies.Design/methodology/approachThe researcher depended on secondary and primary data as well in working on this paper. She used secondary data gathered from scholars and from domestic and international institutions. Then, she conducted a field study and collected data through distributing 384 Likert Scale questionnaires containing 34 self-administered among respondents to test the following: 1. Citizens perceptions regarding the level of trust in government’s decisions and policies. 2. The impact of citizens’ trust on their willingness to participate in governments’ projects. 3. Is ‘public service motivation’ (PSM) behind citizens’ willingness of participating in national projects. 4. Is the ‘high expected profit of Suez Canal Investment Certificates’ behind citizens participation in national projects.FindingsH1 and H2 have been accepted as trust, transparency and citizen participation proved to be important pillars of building a participatory government. Moreover, citizens’ participation in national projects encouraged national and international enterprises to invest in the canal provision. H3 and H4 are accepted and the statistical study revealed dual contradicting results regarding the motive of citizens’ financial participation in the New Suez Canal project. The justification for the contradiction is that right after the 2011 up-rise, Egyptian citizens were overwhelmed with patriot emotions and feelings pushing them to participate in national projects. At the same time this patriot drive was moderated by the “performance-based rewards and citizens” self-interests’ pushed by the Egyptian government (offering a high-interest rate for Suez Canal Certificates at that time). Citizens might be motivated to participate in national projects triggered by many factors: public service drive – patriotism or self-interest.Research limitations/implicationsThe study needs further deeper investigation and empirical pieces of evidence to answer the following questions: would different participatory actions result differently in other circumstances? Do individuals’ levels of PSM vary over time? Besides, the researcher needs to find ways to test PSM against various motives such as self-interest, which needs to be confirmed empirically.Practical implicationsThe author came up with important recommendations for central government and decision-makers in Egypt and is based upon the study’s statistical results. The most important recommendations were: central government and decision-makers should frame a policy designed to promote citizens’ participation in decision-making drawing on the guidelines for civil participation in political decision-making. Decision-makers in the central government should work local and regional authorities to update and improve local and regional regulations concerning the participation of citizens in local public life and promote a culture of democratic participation shared by communities and local authorities. Performance-based rewards (high-interest rate) are moderating the citizens’ public service motivation (PSM – patriot sense) and citizens may be motivated by different factors such as public service drive – patriotism or self-interest.Social implicationsThe study is tackling an important issue, which is civil participation in political decision-making. It is also discussing promoting cultural awareness regarding the importance of democratic participation shared by communities and local authorities. The study came up with certain findings proving Egyptian civil society’s willingness in participating with the government in national projects; believing in its socio-economic benefits.Originality/valueFinally, the study is of value, as it could be considered a pilot study representing the outcomes of citizen participation in national projects; in addition, it can be considered as a road map to policymakers. Moreover, the findings provide a set of recommendations and policies for governments and decision-makers to undertake tangible actions to accelerate citizen participation in further projects and decisions and be able to establish a democratic system in developing countries.

A change from bureaucracy as a machine to a lively bureaucracy is needed for future VUCA. Being ”agile” is a defence strategy for bureaucracy to handle disruptions. Transformation of local government from a hierarchical system to an agile bureaucracy while maintaining stability and sustainably delivering services to citizens in diverse spaces and times necessitates leveraging a range of factors. We conducted a systematic literature review to explore enabling factors that help leverage agility for local government governance transformation. Redesigning local government bureaucracy requires a shared commitment and an integrated central government policy framework for enabling the support system. We prescribe a new model of local government governance in disaster-prone areas, which needs to be supported by an elite team who are responsive, flexible and innovative in real-time. This group should have expertise in policy analysis, human wellbeing, health, food supply, communication, informatics, risk disaster management, and mitigation to maintain future governance. This futuristic local government organizational design adapts crisis management into an integrated digital system dominated by strategic management levels, which adhere to morals and values. Keywords: agile local governance, crisis management, operational policy, redesign bureaucracy, responsiveness in VUCA

Disasters cause great damage, destruction and human suffering. They test local capacity to respond to them. Unless a disaster management system has implemented a mitigation program and provided a comprehensive, effective plan, the consequences of a disaster will be amplified. In the wake of a disaster, adjustments to the plan, coherent requests for assistance and a willingness to coordinate with other institutions are critical requirements. Decision-making must be efficient and based on context-specific problem solving. Balanced with this is the need to redeploy resources in new ways and to regain trust from communities, so that they are not working to different purposes. These conditions therefore require strength in particular capabilities. This study highlights capability in institutions, human resources, policy making, finance, technical capacity and leadership as key functional success factors for local government in managing a disaster at the local government level. The study focuses on local government because local government is the institution closest to the community and plays an important role in a disaster management system. The research framework of this study articulates a model for local government in managing a disaster, the requirements needed, obstacles that may be faced by local government, and networking that occurs with all levels of government, NGOs and the community. The research is focuses on the Bantul local government, Indonesia, as a case study in managing the 2006 earthquake. The study is an exploratory and intrinsic case study. In order to increase reliability and validity, mixed method research was used. Information related to literature-identified key natural disaster responses was collected through in-depth and semi-structured interview with 40 key informants. Informants interviewed were varied from the central government, the provincial regional government, local government, community leaders, local NGOs and international NGOs who were involved during and after the earthquake. To support the interview findings, researcher also conducted a community leader survey in three districts where destruction was greatest and most deaths and injuries occurred. Qualitative data was analysed using NVivo; SPSS was used to analyse quantitative data. The study finds that: (1) The lack of a strategic framework for disaster management, lack of disaster mitigation and preparedness programmes and limited knowledge on the part of local government existed in Bantul before the 2006 earthquake and resulted in paralysis of the government’s mobilisation and organisation; (2) Although Bantul had never previously had to manage such a disaster, local government capability shows favourable results in terms of institutions, human resources, policy for effective implementation, finance, technical capacity and leadership; (3) Collaborative leadership revealed in the Bantul case indicates decisive action as the critical competency in managing disaster; (4) Building trust between local government and public, private and not-for-profit organisations contributed to the success of disaster response and recovery in Bantul; (5) Organisation, the budget, attitudes, local expertise and volunteers are the most crucial problems at each stage of disaster management; and (6) Social capital, local culture and local wisdom contributed significantly to the effective recovery result in Bantul.

Local governments in Western Europe have become increasingly involved in network building with the local business community. The author suggests that governance processes are not value neutral but reflect and sustain political values beyond partisan conflict. Comparing managerial, corporatist, progrowth, and welfare governance models of urban governance, the author argues that nation-state factors play an important role in shaping urban governance. Different sectors in urban politics display different models of governance and local political choice matters. Also, cities within the same national context differ significantly with regard to the degree of inclusion of organized interests in urban governance, which, in turn, is reflected in urban policy outcomes.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine public‐private partnerships with a particular focus on the impact that such partnerships have on territorial governance. These organizations are spread all over the world with the goal of promoting community participation and sustainable development, and engaging citizens and organizations in the decision making of local governance. This situation underlines important changes in governance and territorial governance models.Design/methodology/approachA mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches are used. Analysing the existing literature, the paper focuses on specific type of public‐private partnership: the Local Action Group (LAG). Specifically, this study focuses on 63 Italian LAGs, in order to highlight their role in the challenges that local governance has to face.FindingsFindings suggest that public‐private partnerships can represent a new model of governance – the Partnership Governance – with features that differentiate this form from other models.Originality/valueThrough a relatively novel statistical technique, combined with interviews, document analysis and direct observations, on the one hand the public‐private partnership phenomenon is observed, and on the other hand, a new mode of governance that is affecting the worldwide scenario in a current era and that is introducing ethical principles in governance systems is conceived.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the main challenges and obstacles that local authorities may face in implementing risk management. Interest in this issue in the public sector, and especially in local authorities, is relatively recent, and only a few studies have been performed in this area concerning some developed and emerging countries. Consequently, this research aims to explore risk management adoption and diffusion in Moroccan local authorities. To this end, a risk management model developed in our previous research was used. This model is based on a comparison of nine of the soundest risk management standards released by national and international professional bodies. A research framework was created to transpose and test this model within Moroccan local authorities. In addition, an exploratory study was carried out based on qualitative data collected from interviews with middle and high officers from four Moroccan municipalities. The results show that Moroccan local authorities are facing both strategic and operational challenges in their implementation of risk management. To overcome these challenges, key recommendations are proposed to successfully implement risk management. Accordingly, this study provides an overview of risk culture, risk awareness, and risk management practices among Moroccan local authorities. It offers a practical guide for local authorities’ stakeholders who want to promote risk culture and lay a foundation for risk management implementation.

The centralised policy of Indonesian local government governance in waste management by applying strict laws and regulations has led to failure. This is evidenced by the increasing trend in landfill waste from year to year. There is a need for improvements and changes to local government policies in governance through the involvement of the private sector and the community. The purpose of this study is to explore the changes in the early stages of two collaboration initiatives: one relying on the traditional collaboration model centred on local government, and the other using a collaboration model involving both the private sector and the community in the city of Pekanbaru. A case study approach employing qualitative methods is used to elucidate changes in local government governance policies in sustainable waste management. Data were collected through interviews, document reviews, and websites content analysis. Data analysis was conducted to examine the roles of the local government, private sector, and community as well as content analysis to establish connections between forms of collaborative governance. The findings propose a conceptual model and suggest a novel role for local governments as facilitators of alliances and coordinators of cooperation. platforms.

Context: Governments are being pressured by citizens and other stakeholders to improve their efficiency and effectiveness while, at the same time, they are seeing reductions in available resources. This is the result of several waves of New Public Management-style reforms which have developed into the New Public Governance view (Osborne, 2009). At the same time, recent global financial stress challenges the financial sustainability of governments, both at national and local levels.Problem: Financial health is a necessary condition under which governments must operate. Nevertheless, while the literature concentrates on different models of governance within the public sector, there is a lack of research on financial health measurement system.Purpose: In light of this problem, we juxtapose the analysis of financial health measurement systems with Considine’s four governance models applied to the Italian local governments context.Theoretical frameworks: The paper grounds its theoretical frameworks from the literature concerning various governance model types, [Procedural, Corporate, Market, and Network Governance] (Considine, 1999, 2001, 2003) and financial health (Boyett and Giroux, 1978; Downing, 1991; Alijarde and Lopez, 2001).Methodology: Through a multiple case study approach of three Italian local governments we combine documental analysis of compulsory financial statement indicators and interviews with internal key users aimed to understand the effective use of financial indicators to determine financial health in practice. Findings: A local government needs to have a specific set of financial performance indicators attuned to the prevalent governance model used for its services delivery. Originality, value and practical implications: On a theoretical perspective, this study highlights to what extent each governance model requires specific financial health measures, in order to stress that measuring financial health is a contingent issue, which cannot be assessed regardless the prevailing governance setting implemented. Under a practical point of view, this study identifies the features of different types of financial health measurement systems in various governance models.

Summary: As our healthcare system is in transition towards a more personalized preventive healthcare approach, enabled by the digital transformation, we aim to design a harmonized data driven population health approach, shared by local healthcare actors and wherein citizens have trust through a local data governance. Background: Our healthcare system is in transition towards a more personalized preventive healthcare approach, which is enabled by the digital transformation. To enable this transition, there is a need for a harmonized data driven population health approach, shared by local healthcare actors. To create this based on citizen-generated data, it is crucial that citizens have trust in sharing their data, which can be enabled by a local data governance. The trade-off or interaction between local governance of these data and cashing in on health gains based on that data should thus be investigated for all stakeholders in the quadruple helix (citizens, healthcare providers, governments, and companies). Objectives: The aim of this research was to consult primary care zones, general practitioners, pharmacists, and local governments in Flanders on their current way of working, more specifically the use of data in their healthcare prevention strategy. We aimed to investigate what data they are already using, the data sources and the reason of data use. We also examined the current gaps in their data strategy and what they wanted to improve. Design: The project has been externally funded by VLOCA and EMPOWERCARE Interreg 2 Seas. Online consultations were conducted with in total 16 participants from a general practitioner center, 3 primary care zones in Flanders, the overarching body of the primary care zones, a mutuality, a pharmacy network and 2 local governments. In addition, we conducted an online focus group with 25 participants within the healthcare sector, with the participants partially overlapping with the participants from the online consultations. Results: The online consultations and focus group with participants from the primary healthcare sector in Flanders give an insight on the current data driven approaches in healthcare prevention. Participants indicate data is valuable in healthcare prevention, such as targeted interventions and population health management. Some participants are already working on a data driven approach in healthcare prevention. The majority, however, indicates that there is a lack on real world data relating to lifestyle. Conclusion: The present study gives an insight on the current use of data in healthcare prevention in Flanders. The current research informs us there is a need for a harmonized healthcare data driven approach. Moreover, it provides us insights on the trust-relationship between citizens and data, which is a necessity when data driven approaches are implemented. As next steps, the results of these consultations will be combined in an open data architecture on prevention and lifestyle. Moreover, we will further investigate how this research relates to the international context.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the state of environmental management accounting practice and the motivations for its use with a view to improving waste and recycling management by local government. The focus is on practice in local governments situated in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Prior studies suggest the need for environmental management accounting as a supporting tool for waste management.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory case study method was applied in 12 NSW local government organisations. In each local government interviews were conducted with managers responsible for waste and recycling issues.FindingsContrary to prior research this study found that, in the local governments investigated, an increasing amount of environmental management accounting information is being made available. The case studies found two main motivations encouraging the development of environmental management accounting in local government: first, social structural influences, such as regulatory pressures from different environmental regulatory bodies, environmental expectations from local communities, and pressures from peer councils; second, organisational contextual influences reflecting situational needs in the organisational contexts, such as complex waste operations and service designs, changes and uncertainties in waste and recycling management, and the council's strategic position for waste management.Research limitations/implicationsThe results imply that institutional theory and contingency theory provide different but complementary explanations for the development of environmental management accounting in waste management. Although previous environmental studies are overwhelmingly in favour of social system‐based theories, such as institutional theory, to explain environmental changes in organisations, an organisation's contextual dynamics seem to be equally important.Originality/valueThe findings about motivations provide useful information for environmental strategists and government regulators to make policies that improve accountability and the efficiency of waste and recycling management as well as promote future development of environmental management accounting to support sustainable waste management solutions.

Networks and Fault Lines: Understanding the role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration: a network governance perspective

The changing role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration This study aims to increase our understanding of the role of social housing organisations in neighbourhood regeneration governance networks, in order to enhance the performance and outcomes of these networks. Our understanding of how governance networks work is still limited, especially concerning the role of non-state actors like housing associations. Hierarchical government steering is increasingly mixed with market mechanisms and networked forms of decision-making. These shifts in governance often result in more complex decision-making that can easily lead to deadlocks, low-quality outcomes and ambiguous anchorage of democratic principles. Neighbourhood regeneration takes place in rather exceptional governance networks. The organisations involved, and the problems at hand, are place-based. Actors, like housing associations, local authorities and community organisations, are more or less ‘locked’ into the regeneration network and need to collaborate in order to solve the problems. The complexity of neighbourhood renewal processes is often very high, due to the large number of actors involved, and the combination of insufficient housing quality, lack of affordability and supply, along with social and economic problems that need to be addressed. Housing associations focus on the delivery of affordable decent quality housing; but, in many countries—like the Netherlands and England—these organisations also have an important role in neighbourhood regeneration. Housing associations are non-profit organisations that provide housing for low and moderate-income households. They operate largely autonomously from the government, although they are often strongly regulated and dependent on government subsidies. Housing associations in England and the Netherlands share many organisational characteristics and hybrid third-sector values emerging from the need to balance social and economic objectives. They have largely similar tasks and responsibilities, but work in very divergent contexts. This study devotes careful attention to the contingencies of time and place of decisionmaking in order to regenerate insights that are also relevant outside the case-study areas. Therefore, this study places Dutch and English housing associations in their respective political economies, welfare regimes and rental housing systems. The study also highlights the ambiguous position—between state, market, and society—of housing associations. Neighbourhood regeneration evolved from slum clearance and complete area redevelopment in the 1950s and 1960s, towards more integral place-based approaches—in the 1970s and 1980s—with a stronger emphasis on improving the existing housing stock and involving local communities. The nature of the involvement of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration has changed over time in response to government policies, public opinion, their own strategies, and the strategies of their umbrella organisations. In both England and the Netherlands, their increasingly prominent role —especially after the start of the new millennium—was driven by pressures on housing associations to take a leading role in neighbourhood regeneration. A governance network perspective on neighbourhood regeneration The emergence of the ‘network society’ has led to a fragmentation of power and resources. This fragmentation has led to increased interdependence of actors; public, private and community actors need to collaborate to solve problems. This study uses a governance network approach to explore the complexity and uncertainties involved in neighbourhood regeneration decision-making. The study explores five interrelated questions [see Chapter 1, §1.2], each related to a component of a theoretical framework on decision-making in a network setting. These questions involve context, networks, actors, processes and outcomes. In order to answer the research questions, a qualitative, comparative, longitudinal exploration based on a case study methodology, was conducted. To ensure that comparable cases were explored, similar ‘focal actors’ were chosen (i.e. housing associations), as well as similar ‘policy outputs’ as starting points for the study (i.e. the drafting of neighbourhood regeneration plans). Based on these criteria, housing association Midland Heart, and the neighbourhood Lozells in North/West Birmingham, was selected as the English case study. In the Netherlands, housing association De Huismeesters, and De Hoogte, a neighbourhood in Groningen, were selected. Personal accounts have been an important data source for this study; 70 interviews with 45 different individuals were conducted between 2007 and 2014 in Groningen, and Birmingham. In addition, for the case study in The Hague (Chapter 5), around 25 interviews were conducted in 2004. That chapter was a first introduction to the explanatory capabilities of the network governance perspective. Research results The introductory chapter explores contextual factors—such as economic, social and political developments—that affect the role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration. Chapters 3 through 7 contain sections which describe the context relevant to that specific chapter. Chapter 8 is more reflective in nature and discusses the impact of post-crisis ‘Big Society’ (UK), and Participation Society (NL) government policies, as contingency factors for the role of housing associations in relation to local communities. Finally, Chapter 9 brings all the components of the theoretical framework together and especially reflects on the significant impact of contextual developments on the role played by housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration decision-making, and delivery. This research also highlighted the strong network relationships between housing associations and local authorities, but also revealed the often troublesome interactions between housing associations and residents. The title of this thesis: “Networks and Fault lines” is intended to reflect this. This research took place in a period of unexpectedly dynamic economic, social and political developments, i.e. the global financial crisis, the housing-market downturn, government austerity, and a more restricted interpretation of the state’s role in delivering welfare services. The impacts of these developments varied across the two cases. The Dutch housing association proved more resilient to contextual developments than its English counterpart; especially its ability to continue the neighbourhood investment programme. National government funding was less important to the Dutch housing association: the organisation already had access to neighbourhood regeneration investment resources. Other contextual factors, such as the characteristics of the national political economies, welfare and housing systems, indirectly affected the role played by housing associations. These factors mainly influenced the characteristics of the governance networks and the decision-making processes within these networks. Explored through the networks component are the characteristics of the governance networks that housing associations participate in: interdependencies, strength of network relations, and the nature of the coordination mechanisms that underline decision-making. The key concepts to exploring networks are introduced in Chapter 2, and further developed in Chapters 3, 5 and 7. We found high levels of uncertainty, generated by the variety of, and the interdependencies between, actors, the closed-mindedness of actors to the arguments of other parties, and the changes in composition of the governance network. For example, the research found substantial cross-national differences, and indications that network characteristics change and fluctuate over time. In contrast to the situation in Groningen, the dependency of the Birmingham network on external government funding negatively affected the stability and the performance of that network. In Groningen, top-down government intervention also negatively affected the stability of the network, but for other reasons. The, short-lived, abundance of resources for regeneration led to such a high number of new actors, issues, goals and decision-making arenas that the governance network was unable to function properly for some time. The network actors increased the complexity of policy games of their own volition. Sometimes, this was induced by the national government, when local network actors responded to steering instruments such as government subsidies. This led to more network complexity and dynamics in the form of new goals, network actors and decision-making arenas. The third research component—the actors— explored the perceptions and objectives of housing associations, and other key network actors concerning neighbourhood regeneration investments and activities. Housing associations in both case-study areas took a prominent role in neighbourhood regeneration activities, and collaborated closely with local authority departments in drafting regeneration plans. The housing associations regarded improving the quality and variety of the local housing stock as an important element in creating a more mixed community, and retaining and attracting more affluent households. The local authorities supported this predominantly longterm ambition. Residents were more concerned with tackling short-term liveability issues, such as anti-social behaviour, crime and litter. The role of housing associations changed during the 2007-2014 fieldwork period. From occupying a leading role in the regeneration process—in partnership with the local authority—at the start of the exploration in 2007, this role transformed into a more facilitating and supporting role. This appears to have been brought about by two related factors: a serious decline in available regeneration resources, and an increased emphasis on the responsibilities of individual residents and local communities under the influence of the Participation Society agenda, in the Netherlands, and the Localism agenda in England. Residents and private-sector organisations were rarely directly involved in regeneration decision-making. With a little hindsight, one could formulate the contention that these actors were not fully represented in the governance network because the incumbent network actors (i.e. the housing associations and local authorities) chose the devil they knew. They opted for state involvement to acquire investment resources, rather than facing the uncertainties that would have resulted from expanding the network to include residents and private-sector organisations as full and mature network actors. Decision-making processes constitute the fourth component of this study. It explored the decision-making interactions inside the neighbourhood regeneration networks, with a special focus on the interaction strategies used by housing associations. This study found that housing associations in the Groningen and Birmingham cases had a prominent and often leading role in the policy arenas where regeneration policies were developed. National governments in both countries had a strong impact on how these processes evolved, leveraged by the alluring investment resources offered by national regeneration programmes, and the preconditions accompanying these resources. Decision-making took place in arenas that almost exclusively consisted of housing association and local authority professionals. Residents were largely given a consumerist role in the process: their views on neighbourhood needs were collected through various instruments to involve residents, such as surveys and street interviews. Their views were, implicitly, taken into account in the decision-making. Residents were most often not part of these processes and not involved in the development of regeneration investments plans. Not all decision-making arenas were closed to residents. The housing associations in both case-study areas did involve residents as co-decision-makers in more ‘hands-on’ neighbourhood issues such as improving playareas, tackling garbage and litter problems. Decision-making conflicts and deadlocks were rather limited in the investigated governance networks. There was a strong impetus for the housing associations and the local authorities to reach agreements: no consensus would very likely mean no national government funding. Housing associations and local authorities used rather traditional instruments to facilitate decision-making, such as limiting the number of actors involved, and enforcing strict time constraints on decision-making processes. Outcomes are the fifth and last component of this study. In this component we explored how the network—and housing associations in particular—contributed to decision-making and neighbourhood regeneration outcomes. It is evident that the housing associations in the case-study areas contributed significantly to neighbourhood regeneration activities, not only because they channelled considerable investments into the areas, but also due to their strong network relations and frequent interactions with government agencies and local communities. The actions of network actors have improved the quality of some parts of the housing stock. Joint projects have been delivered to improve the public realm and contribute to neighbourhood safety. The research found that actors used very divergent process, input, output and outcome yardsticks to measure success, ranging from the number of projects and activities started, to the amount of money spent, the increase in resident satisfaction, the number of decision-making conflicts overcome, and the improvement achieved in quality-of-life indicators. These yardsticks changed over time and varied from actor to actor. This demonstrated how fluid the assessment of regeneration outcomes can be. New rounds of decision-making, as well as new network actors, led to a review of old decisions, sometimes with a different assessment of the outcomes achieved. Challenges for governance network approaches The governance network perspective has supported the exploration of the role played by housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration decision-making. It has increased our understanding of the complexity and the uncertainties involved in networked forms of decision-making. Governance network theory helped us identify instruments and strategies used by housing associations and local authorities to support regeneration decision-making. The governance network perspective is a rather new academic discipline that can be further developed. This study contributed to this development by addressing some issues and challenges; firstly, the role of residents in decision-making arenas, and secondly, the assessment of governance network outcomes. The theoretical and methodological implications of residents as neighbourhood regeneration co-producers Policy-makers expect a more active role of residents and local communities in the co-production of neighbourhood regeneration. This more inclusive approach may contribute to the quality and legitimacy of decisions made in governance networks, but the efficiency of decision-making will most probably not benefit. The trade-off between efficiency and legitimacy that arises from increased resident involvement is a challenge that calls for the further development of the governance network theory. This research suggests several avenues that could be followed to address this challenge. Firstly, a more extensive use of Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action, as explored in Chapter 8, might be undertaken to supplement the governance network theory. Secondly, more use could be made of the body of knowledge and theories developed in England during the New Labour government (1997-2010), which was often explicitly concerned with networks that linked governments with citizens and local communities [see Chapter 9]. The assessment of governance network outcomes Co-production of neighbourhood regeneration can lead to more democratic and inclusive approaches to decision-making. This is likely to result in better outcomes, but not necessarily in greater consensus among the actors involved. Within network governance approaches, there is a tendency to define satisfactory outcomes as those that enjoy the greatest joint support of the actors involved in the process. More inclusive approaches, which engage a wider range of actors, might appear to be less successful as the benchmark of satisfaction is raised to include a wider range of preferences and experiences. Therefore, we need a more refined assessment of outcomes produced by increasingly heterogeneous networks. Governance network approaches could develop methods – or develop connections with other theories and methodologies – that help evaluate the success of governance networks by combining substantive regeneration outcomes, actor and stakeholder satisfaction, and network learning. Preventing ‘cherry picking’ in the use of assessment yardsticks is essential, given the disinclination of actors to closely scrutinise the outcomes produced by governance networks (as found in this research). Further development of network governance approaches may increase our understanding of how actors construct the yardsticks to evaluate success, and provide tools to facilitate a more comprehensive assessment of network outcomes [See chapter 9]. Housing associations as champions of networks in vulnerable neighbourhoods This research demonstrated that housing associations can play an important stabilising and cohesion-enhancing role in neighbourhood regeneration networks. Their interests are vested in the value of the local housing stock, and this financial incentive secures some level of commitment to vulnerable neighbourhoods. Their hybrid characteristics enable housing associations to collaborate with community, market and government organisations. Moreover, their professional capabilities and their relatively-easy access to resources allow them to champion neighbourhood needs, in cases where communities lack the capacity or cohesiveness to champion their own. Using the leeway that housing associations have, as a hybrid organisation, is an extremely delicate exercise. They should seek a balance between the very different and variable expectations of the outside world. This balancing act is only attainable when housing associations can combine proficiency in network management, with increased accountability. Each neighbourhood is different, and housing associations should take a role that is appropriate to each neighbourhood. To do this, they should increase their knowledge of the neighbourhood challenges and assess the capabilities of residents and the local community to address these problems. Housing associations can support the development of governance networks to address these problems by helping craft networks in such a way that they include all relevant parties, and by providing small but stable funding to support network development and by improving accountability in decision-making processes. There are strong arguments for housing associations to take a central role in neighbourhood regeneration. Housing associations are among the most prominent frontline agencies supporting vulnerable people and places. Through their housing stock, they are literally ‘anchored’ in the most deprived communities. Housing associations should not become the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ in neighbourhood regeneration, but can help develop, nurture and maintain well-functioning and stable regeneration networks which vulnerable neighbourhoods need. Housing associations can be the long-haul champion that neighbourhoods and local communities need.

Networks and Fault Lines: Understanding the role of housing associations in neighbourhood regeneration: a network governance perspective