Fragmented Governance Structure Research Articles

The Governance of Childhood Vaccination Services in Crisis Settings: A Scoping Review.

The persistence of inadequate vaccination in crisis-affected settings raises concerns about decision making regarding vaccine selection, timing, location, and recipients. This review aims to describe the key features of childhood vaccination intervention design and planning in crisis-affected settings and investigate how the governance of childhood vaccination is defined, understood, and practised. We performed a scoping review of 193 peer-reviewed articles and grey literature on vaccination governance and service design and planning. We focused on 41 crises between 2010 and 2021. Following screening and data extraction, our analysis involved descriptive statistics and applying the governance analysis framework to code text excerpts, employing deductive and inductive approaches. Most documents related to active outbreaks in conflict-affected settings and to the mass delivery of polio, cholera, and measles vaccines. Information on vaccination modalities, target populations, vaccine sources, and funding was limited. We found various interpretations of governance, often implying hierarchical authority and regulation. Analysis of governance arrangements suggests a multi-actor yet fragmented governance structure, with inequitable actor participation, ineffective actor collaboration, and a lack of a shared strategic vision due to competing priorities and accountabilities. Better documentation of vaccination efforts during emergencies, including vaccination decision making, governance, and planning, is needed. We recommend empirical research within decision-making spaces.

Improving the quality of Cambodian higher education: Key challenges and suggestions

Higher education is one of the main drivers of economic development. Due to its significant roles, many countries, including Cambodia, have invested in developing their higher education subsector. For over two decades since 1997, Cambodia has experienced a high increase in the number of higher education institutions (HEIs). Despite the rapid institutional expansion, there are many issues impeding the quality of Cambodian higher education. Drawing on secondary sources and the authors’ extensive experience and knowledge of the subsector, this article tries to investigate and explain some of the factors affecting the quality of higher education in Cambodia. The article focuses on several issues, including political interference, fragmented governance structures, ineffective ministerial policy implementation, fragmented institutional management, limited quality of teaching personnel, low academic salaries, business-oriented higher education, and issues concerning curriculum and academic programs. The article offers some suggestions to address these challenges. Key suggestions include (a) limiting political interference in appointing top university leaders, (b) setting up effective and independent higher education quality assurance bodies, (c) creating a term limit for top university leadership roles, (d) establishing a meritocracy-based policy for university leader appointments, (e) making academic salaries comparable to those of other similar professions, (f) developing policies on minimum tuition fees and student loan programs, and (g) introducing mechanisms to improve curricula and promote enrollments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.

Urban climate governance in Southeast Asian small and mid-sized cities: undermining resilience and distributing risks unevenly

ABSTRACT Secondary cities are home to most of the world’s urban populations vulnerable to climate change, yet researchers and policymakers have devoted less attention to them than large and megacities. To help address this gap, this paper explores the relationship between incomplete decentralized governance, climate change, and urban resilience. It does through the case studies of secondary cities of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Secondary cities are of importance because they are the fastest growing cities in the Global South but also because they have weaker capacity to address climate risks. Through these case studies, the paper draws comparisons between the different cases to look at the linkages between decentralization and urban resilience in secondary cities. Overall, it argues that climate governance, due to the retention of power and resources by central bureaucrats along with fragmented governance structures, and misaligned incentive structures which prioritize economic growth over climate protection have undermined resilience building and contributed to the uneven distribution of climate risks in these cities.

Perceptions of professional esports players on performance-enhancing substances

Along with the rapid rise of esports across the globe, the esports industry is increasingly confronted with issues concerning governance, regulations and manipulations. Software-cheating, match-fixing as well as doping seem to be widespread phenomena within professional esports competitions. Addressing these issues is challenging due to complex and fragmented governance structures and the lack of any central steering authority. This study looks into doping and performance enhancement in particular. Based on semi-structured interviews with (n = 9) selected professional FIFA esports players, we explore their perceptions of the use of drugs and other (allegedly) performance-enhancing substances such as energy drinks and gaming boosters. The core findings that emerged out of the data are a high performance pressure related to FIFA competitions as perceived by players, an ambivalent perception towards the legitimacy of different forms of performance enhancement and a lack of anti-doping measures on the part of organisations involved. The study is among the first to explore the view of players as one of the key stakeholders in the esports ecosystem.

Equal rights for gasoline and electricity? The dismantling of fossil fuel vehicle phase-out policy in Taiwan

Phasing out fossil fuel vehicles is an indispensable pillar to decarbonize the transportation sector. In 2017, Taiwan proposed to ban all new sales of gasoline-powered scooters by 2035 and passenger cars by 2040. In less than two years, the phase-out policy was suspended. We explore this policy failure through the lens of multi-level perspective (MLP) framework and examine the interactions between the radical niche innovations, the incumbent regime, and the socio-technical landscape. We first show that the scooter industry played a decisive role in the policymaking processes. As an emerging niche innovation, however, the e-scooter manufacturers faced difficulties with scaling up their new system and confronting customer complaints. We also illustrate that Taiwan's fossil fuel vehicle phase-out suffers from hasty policy formulation and lack of effective coordination. The incumbent regime took advantage of the fragmented governance structure, and even brought back gasoline scooter subsidies successfully. In the socio-technical landscape, the phase-out policy is embedded in the ruling party's progressive reform package. Taiwan's gasoline scooter supply chains, in the campaign of “Equal Rights for Gasoline and Electricity”, appropriated the rhetoric of social justice and framed the phase-out policy as unfair. Facing huge defeat in the local election in 2018, the ruling party considered the phase-out policy as immature and reversed course. This paper provides a rare case study of mobility transition when two-wheel vehicles are dominant, and offer implications to countries in similar contexts.

Exploring energy resilience in China’s energy law in the carbon neutrality era

ABSTRACT Through the lens of scholarly discussion on law, resilience, and adaptive capacity, this article critically discusses the extent to which energy law and governance in China has been steered towards better resilience. By looking at the laws and regulations in China’s electricity sector, this article argues that China’s efforts to create a more resilient and adaptive electric power system that can respond to disruptions is challenged by three key factors. The first of these is the historic focus in China on assuring adequate supplies of energy to support economic growth, an approach that relies more on the conventional aspect of the resilience theory, known as engineering resilience, rather than transformational resilience. The second factor is the multi-level and fragmented authoritarian governance structure in China’s energy sector that opens the door to local authorities and SOEs favouring especially coal generation and curtailing generation from renewable energy sources. Finally, the laws supporting the transition to a cleaner, lower carbon and more efficient energy system in China essential to transformational resilience need to be strictly enforced since the current enforcement regime has not achieved the desired result.

Metropolitan governance and environmental outcomes: does inter-municipal cooperation make a difference?

ABSTRACT Inter-municipal cooperation in metropolitan areas has been previously shown to save costs, but can it also improve environmental outcomes? The existing empirical evidence is largely based on single case studies and does not allow to ascertain the net effect of cooperation. We develop a three-level mixed-effects linear model to conduct a systematic large-n study testing the impact of cooperation in transportation on CO2 transport emissions. We use a novel dataset covering over 200 metropolitan areas in 16 OECD countries. The findings demonstrate that both fragmented and consolidated metropolitan governance structures are equally inefficient in delivering a reduction in CO2 transport emissions. Further, without functional enforcement mechanisms, mitigation policies fail to have a positive effect on environmental outcomes. Inter-municipal cooperation in metropolitan areas facilitates coherence and widespread enforcement and emerges as a crucial factor explaining the reduction of CO2 transport emissions. Effects of metropolitan cooperation on transportation are magnified by the presence of national environmental mitigation policies.

Towards a global list of accepted species IV: Overcoming fragmentation in the governance of taxonomic lists

Governance is the act of governing or organizing, that is a system of rules, norms, or shared strategies to guide or regulate the actions of the governed. Since the initial development of Linnaean taxonomy, a diversity of approaches have been adopted for critical taxonomic decisions, introducing pluralism to taxonomic principles and resulting in disagreements about the development of species lists. These disagreements are in part a product of the fragmented governance structure that has developed for the creation of taxonomic lists. To address these challenges and achieve the goal of a single, accepted list of life on Earth, a new governance structure for the development of taxonomic lists is needed. Here, we introduce three high-level categories of governance structure—fragmentation, monocentric governance, and polycentric governance—which differ in the way decision-making power is distributed and coordinated. We then show the problems caused by the fragmented governance structure currently in place for the development of taxonomic lists and consider the potential for a new approach grounded in either monocentric or polycentric governance. Both monocentric and polycentric approaches have the potential to address the problems inherent in the existing fragmented system. Ultimately, the best governance system for taxonomic lists will be the one that the taxonomic community is prepared to accept.

Medical waste management at the primary healthcare centres in a north western Nigerian State: Findings from a low-resource setting

ObjectivesThis study aims to examine medical waste management (MWM) practices and identify the challenges of optimal MWM at the primary healthcare (PHC) level in Kebbi State, Nigeria. Study designThis study was a cross-sectional survey of 265 primary healthcare workers (PHCWs) and health facilities (HFs) in Kebbi State. MethodsThe study tool used was a questionnaire adapted from the WHO rapid assessment tool on MWM and water sanitation. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS version 20 software. ResultsData generated from 257 HWs were used in this study. Amidst other findings, only 65 (25%) HFs had MWM guideline or policy document; out of these 65HFs, only 19 (7%) of them had problem with its implementation. Only 42 (16%) HFs had a compensation package or a health insurance policy to take care of their health workers in case of MWM-associated hazards while 22 (9%) HFs had specific budgetary allocation for MWM. Only 105 (41%) HFs had trained staffers on MWM. Sharps, blood/body fluids and domestic wastes were the top three (3) wastes generated among the surveyed HFs. Medical waste treatment was on-site in 124 (48%) HFs and burn-and-bury method was the adopted method of medical waste disposal in 198 (77%) HFs. However, the majority (76%) of the surveyed HWs expressed dissatisfaction about the waste treatment practices adopted in their HFs. ConclusionOur study revealed a poor level of MWM practices in Kebbi State, Nigeria. The state government and partners need to urgently address the identified operational and policy gaps in MWM in Kebbi State, Nigeria. Furthermore, our study revealed the negative implication of fragmented governance and leadership structure at the PHC level on policy, practice and administration of medical waste management in the Kebbi State, Northwestern Nigeria. Addressing the gaps found in this study would contribute to the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in health and well-being, sustainable cities and communities and contribute to poverty eradication.

Urban scaling, geography, centrality: Relation with local government structures.

We investigate socio-economic urban scaling behavior of municipalities in Denmark, the Netherlands, and in particular in Germany. Our interest is twofold. First we investigate whether, and to what extent, scaling occurs in various types of urban areas. The second important topic of research concerns the comparison of specific types of urban areas with regard to the values of the gross urban product. This is a new approach: two scaling systems are compared not only in terms of the scaling exponent, but also in terms of the differences in the gross urban product. We are specifically interested in the role of urban governance in terms of local urban government structures. Germany is our central case because it works as a natural experiment: a large number of urban areas is one-governance, but others are not. More specifically, we distinguish between cities of which the surrounding urban area belongs to the municipality of the city (kreisfreie cities), and those specific districts (Kreise) which are urban areas consisting of several municipalities. Our findings suggest that urban areas with one municipality perform better than urban areas with fragmented governance structures. We also investigate the relation between scaling of Kreise and simple measures of centrality, including the Zipf-distribution. A strong relation is found between the measured residuals of the scaling equations and the socio-economic position of cities assessed with a set of different socio-economic indicators. Given the debate on the effectiveness of municipal reform, our results may lead to challenging conclusions about the importance of one-municipality instead of multi-municipality governance in urban areas. These results are relevant for policy as they suggest that there is a benefit to unifying the governance structure of compact urban agglomerations.

Trend assessment of the watershed health based on DPSIR framework

In integrated watershed management, to identify efficient managerial responses, assessment of the status and dynamic of watershed health is crucial. This study focused on analyzing the main environmental problems for Gorganroud watershed health using the Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework. The trend of each DPSIR index was also computed using 18 quantitative indicators during the years 2004–2018. Prioritization of the watershed problems using the Friedman test ranked loss of groundwater resources, flood potential, and soil erosion rate as the most important challenges of the watershed. The results showed that except for the S index, all the other have an ascending trend during the study period. The trend slopes of D, P, S, I, and R indices were equal to 0.08, 0.05, -0.05, 0.02, and 0.04, respectively. This means the health of Gorganroud watershed becomes worse over time due to the socioeconomic activities and related pressures. Although some practical measures have been implemented as responses to balance other indices of DPSIR, however, they are neither sufficient nor integrated. The response of increasing water use efficiency has resulted in a rebound effect, causing higher consumption of water resources (Jevons Paradox). While only an integrated approach would guarantee the long-term health of watersheds, fragmented watershed governance structure has made serious challenges for the Integrated Watershed Management approach in the study area.

Sustainable urban mobility in Istanbul: Challenges and prospects

Rapid urban growth and rising mobility demand in megacities having a population of more than 10 million people in emerging economies call for a consistent and comprehensive urban mobility policy framework. Implementing sustainable urban mobility policies in these cities is complicated by fragmented governance structures, conflicting policy priorities and lack of effective financing mechanisms. The city of Istanbul, with a population of nearly 15 million people, has been grappling with rapidly increasing urban mobility problems such as chronic traffic congestion, increasing motorization, overcrowded public transport services, air and noise pollution. Although major infrastructure investments such as new metro and tram lines, a bus rapid transit (BRT) line and capacity increases in public bus network have been undertaken in recent years, the objective of achieving a modal shift from car use to more sustainable transport modes such as public transport, cycling and walking is far from being realized. The focus on megaprojects such as Marmaray, Eurasia Tunnel and Third Bridge further complicate the urban mobility landscape by bringing about conflicting policy priorities. In this paper, a comprehensive review and analysis of Istanbul’s urban transport policies and strategies are scrutinized under the framework of sustainable urban mobility paradigm to better understand the mobility predicament which have long stifled the quality of life of Istanbulites. The challenges are identified, recommendations are proposed, and prospects are put forward as to how to achieve sustainable urban mobility in Istanbul.

Access and allocation in food governance, a decadal view 2008\u20132018

Achieving food security worldwide raises a number of issues with regard to the distribution of global resources. On the one hand, access to resources and ecospace is essential for individuals in order to survive; on the other hand, the allocation of the earth’s resources as well as risks and responsibilities are relevant for the global community. Yet, elements of access and allocation are various and complex, encompassing social, environmental, and economic dimensions in an increasingly fragmented global governance structure. Drawing on the multidisciplinary governance framework on access and allocation by Gupta and Lebel, this paper provides a synoptical review of the literature on food security of the past decade from the perspective of the earth system governance scholarship. This article addresses the question: what have we learnt about access and allocation issues in the area of food governance and its implications for food security? In addressing this question, this review examines how institutions, norms and power affect access to and allocation of resources. The paper draws out key trends and lessons from the literature to conclude that research needs to be sensitive to the complexity and intersectionality of food, the systemic challenges that it poses, and the broader political economy around it.

Transferring sustainable urban mobility policies: An institutional perspective

This study develops an institutional framework for the transfer of the sustainable urban mobility policies from developed to developing institutional settings. Drawing on new institutional economics approach, the study investigates the institutional structure of the urban mobility field with a view to propose a policy transfer framework. The framework is then used in transferring sustainable urban mobility policies from London to Istanbul. On its way to establish a more sustainable urban mobility system, the city of Istanbul, which is the economic capital of Turkey, grapples with many urban mobility problems such as rapid motorization, chronic traffic congestion, air and noise pollution and a fragmented governance structure. London's recent Mayor's Transport Strategy published in March, 2018 which sets out a comprehensive set of policies aiming towards a more sustainable urban mobility is used as a benchmark document for transferring policies to Istanbul. The policy transfer study, commissioned by the local transport authority of Istanbul, is undertaken by a team of experts, consultants and academics which include the author of this study as well. The transfer process is carried out by translating policies into the institutional structure of the policy borrowing city, namely Istanbul. The fragmentation in the policy and governance levels in Istanbul, acting as a major barrier for direct transfer, is addressed by the proposed institutional policy transfer framework. Overall, the study aims to open up new avenues for an institutionally-informed transport policy research. More specifically, the study provides novel conceptual tools for the analysis of the policy transfer studies involving disparate institutional settings.

Adaptive policy implementation: Process and impact of Indonesia’s national irrigation reform 1999–2018

Abstract After two decades of implementation, Indonesia’s program to reform its irrigation sector can be assessed yielding lessons on water policy reform. This reform coincided with state-wide decentralization, and shifted decision-making from a central ministry to a distributed arrangement in which local governments and Water User Associations assume part of irrigation authority and budget. The policy was formulated with different stakeholders in 1999–2004 based on field pilots and was implemented using an adaptive, sequential approach while developing institutional capacity of local governments and farmers. Relatively coherent longitudinal monitoring data sets are available on field-level practices, economic returns on projects (with and without, and before and after reform), and rice production. Institutional development was monitored by performance indicators. The overall reform effectiveness is assessed by analyzing the appropriateness of the new arrangement, and the processes of the policy design and of its implementation. After two decades well over three quarters of the country is applying the policy albeit with varying quality. At field level water supply and allocation turned more reliable, and conflicts better managed. Rice production increased year over year after 2005 correlating with policy roll-out. Irrigation Departments proved less adequate in partnering with farmers, however. Institutional capacity generated one quarter to two thirds of the economic benefit from investments that combined scheme rehabilitation and institutional capacity development. As institutional capacity develops slowly full roll-out may require up to three decades. The analysis shows that in the context of ‘wicked’ policy implementation, not only normative policy design matters, but equally importantly, the sequencing of the process of implementation allowing adaptation to physical, institutional and political realities; still, to be successful a process must build on a credible realistic ‘model’. This is especially true in developing and emerging economies with weaker institutional capacities and more fragmented governance structures.

Building urban and infrastructure resilience through connectivity: An institutional perspective on disaster risk management in Christchurch, New Zealand

The management of large-scale disasters in urban agglomerations often reveals fragmented governance structures. Accordingly, recent debates in the field of disaster risk management call for better coordination of agencies and actors across organisational and territorial boundaries, arguing that this would ultimately improve the resilience of urban areas. However, our analysis of the metropolitan area of Greater Christchurch, which experienced a series of devastating earthquakes in 2010/2011, shows that this conclusion inadequately acknowledges the uncertainties and institutional complexities in the governance of resilience. We show that debates on urban resilience can benefit from the concept of institutional connectivity – defined as institutionalised forms of vertical, horizontal or cross-territorial interaction – to systematically address these complexities. Our empirical results suggest that the efficacy of different forms of institutional connectivity depends on prevailing circumstances. Therefore, particular forms of connectivity should be prioritised on a case-by-case basis. Our empirical study reveals that enhancing institutional connectivity is a resource-intensive and contested process that might induce negative trade-offs. We contend that because institutions shape how different agencies and organisations interact, scholarly debates on urban resilience should put more emphasis on processes of institutional reform and stress the political dimension of institution building for urban resilience.

Governance fragmentation and urban spatial expansion: Evidence from Europe and the United States

This study assesses the effects of urban governance structure on the spatial expansion of metropolitan areas. A more fragmented governance structure, represented by a high number of administrative units with decision power on land use per inhabitant, is expected to increase the competition between small towns in the suburbs of metropolitan areas to attract households and workers, which, in turn, induces more land uptake. We study empirically the relationship between administrative fragmentation and the spatial size of cities in a sample of 180 metropolitan areas in the contexts of the US and Europe in the period 2000—2012. Results shed light on the structural differences between the two broad regions and suggest that administrative fragmentation impacts positively on land uptake in both the United States and Europe, although to different extents.

The EU’s Approach to Transatlantic Science and Research Relations: Between ‘Laissez Faire’ and ‘Science Diplomacy’

This article assesses and explains the emergence, forms and extent of the EU-US science and research relations. It does so through the lens of ‘soft power’ since international cooperation in science and research is increasingly seen as an instrument of ‘soft power’ and a mechanism for improving international relations more generally. Drawing on the concept of ‘actorness’ I argue that the forms of engagement with the US are limited to a ‘laissez faire’ approach combined with elements of ‘science diplomacy’. However, there is no evidence that the EU uses science and research actively as a ‘soft power’ tool by trying to shape the behaviour of actors in order to push for policy outcomes the EU wants to see in other policy areas. As long as science and research policy in the EU is characterized by both a highly fragmented governance structure, and competitiveness and sovereignty concerns amongst Member States, the use of science and research as a ‘soft power’ tool in transatlantic relations remains uncharted territory.

Establishing a metropolitan transport authority in Istanbul: A new institutional economics framework for institutional change in urban transport

Rapid urban growth and resulting urban transport problems in developing cities trigger major transformative reform attempts. However, these attempts might fail due to ignoring the role of the institutional environment. Changing the governance structure from a fragmented governance structure to a centralized transport authority is such an institutional change that should take into account the surrounding institutional arrangements. In this paper, drawing from new institutional economics (NIE) literature, a new framework for institutional change in urban transport is proposed to guide those institutional initiatives. To materialize the theoretical considerations regarding this institutional change framework, attempts to establish a metropolitan transport authority (MTA) in Istanbul constitute the case study of this paper. Having a population of nearly 15 million people with radically increasing urban transport problems, city of Istanbul has considerable amount of the urban transport governance problems due to its fragmented and weak institutional setting. Based on the developed framework and lessons drawn from the Istanbul case, our results highlight the importance of examining the institutional environment of urban transport systems by identifying the institutional levels in institutional transformation initiatives.

Characterizing the recent decline of water consumption in Italian cities

There is increasingly more evidence showing that domestic water consumption is decreasing in many urban areas of the developed world. A large and heterogeneous set of factors may explain this decrease, ranging from structural phenomena, such as changes in the composition of urban populations or in the economic basis of cities to the implementation of more conscious policies such as technological improvements; citizen awareness or higher water prices and taxes. In this paper we examine the drop in water consumption for the ten largest Italian cities. The Italian water sector is characterized by a highly fragmented governance structure that results in a significantly inefficient distribution network, which might be highly exposed to the effects of climate change. However, there is strong opposition to privatization. In the paper we document the drop in water consumption in the largest Italian cities showing demographic (aging), social (migration) and economic (income) factors at the same time. Although it is unlikely that one single reason can explain the declining trend, our conclusion points to a combination of structural factors and specific policies that seem to be more intense in the Northern and Central cities than in the Southern cities.