Local Decision-making Processes Research Articles

“Sustainability is not a vegan coffee shop.” Eliciting citizen attitudes and perspectives to localize the UN sustainable development goals

Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into national legislation includes a need for their localization. The authors posit that this concept of localizing the SDGs is achieved if the goals are appended to an existing policy process with local implications, termed a “policy vehicle.” For this study, Q-methodology was used to gather local perspectives on the legislative process for coastal planning in Norway (the “policy vehicle”), the “proxy” legislation through which the SDGs are localized for the case study municipality of Andøya, Norway. The overall aim of the study was to understand potential pathways for enabling approaches to societal transformations where focus is placed on fostering human agency and capacities. The authors demonstrate how Q-methodology can be applied for enhanced stakeholder engagement in local decision-making processes as a starting point to enable social transformations for sustainability in a social-ecological system.

‘Why is this child in special education?’: A cultural-historical activity theory-based research intervention with senior UK education leaders on assessment for, and allocation of, specialist educational resources

AimsThis paper focuses upon systemic change in a local authority decision-making process (DMP) for allocating specialist resources for children with complex educational needs in a local authority in Scotland. The aim of the paper is to provide reflections and insights into the learning of senior managers and leaders of children’s services to lead organisational change processes.MethodThe original research study design was a two-stage, CHAT-based Developmental-Work-Research (DWR) formative intervention with nine senior managers over an 18-month period. Stage one, reported in this paper, comprised four, three-hour sessions enabling expansion of participants’ learning through a collective zone of proximal development (ZPD). Stage two was evaluation of the intervention as a change process framework and evaluation of implementation of the new model considered as a cycle of expansive learning (discussed elsewhere).FindingsExpansive learning and transformative agency in DWR sessions occurred via four key turning points. An initial focus on problems with, and then improvement of, the DMP shifted to a re-configuration of children’s services leading to the generation of a new model for meeting the children’s needs in mainstream school settings. Findings indicate that a CHAT-based intervention can support the development of new ways of learning, leadership and working to enable public services to make more effective use of resources.LimitationsSeveral groups such as social workers, allied health professionals, parents and young people were not represented directly in this study. Further research using DWR with these groups would contribute to a broader understanding of how systems within children’s services impact on service users.ConclusionCHAT has theoretical and practical relevance for professionals who engage in collaborative real-world research. Findings from the study contribute to the body of knowledge for leadership learning and intervention around change processes in educational systems.

Geographic Information Systems for Facilitating Audits of the Urban Built Environment

Data collection and large-scale urban audits are challenging and can be time consuming processes. Geographic information systems can extract and combine relevant data that can be used as input to calculation tools that provide results and quantify indicators with sufficient spatial analysis to facilitate the local decision-making process for building renovations and sustainability assessment. This work presents an open-access tool that offers an automated process that can be used to audit an urban area in order to extract relevant information about the characteristics of the built environment, analyze the building characteristics to evaluate energy performance, assess the potential for the installation of photovoltaics on available building rooftops, and quantify ground permeability. A case study is also presented to demonstrate data collection and processing for an urban city block, and the relevant results are elaborated upon. The method is easily replicable and is based on open data and non-commercial tools.

DECO: A Deadline-Aware and Energy-Efficient Algorithm for Task Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing

With the rapid development in the area of Internet of Things (IoT), the number of delay-sensitive and power-hungry IoT applications has drastically increased over the past few years. Mobile edge computing (MEC) has become an effective computing model for meeting the IoT applications’ requirements. However, the resource-constrained nature of the IoT devices, different characteristics of IoT tasks such as delay sensitivity, and heterogeneity of the edge cloud servers (ECSs) make the task offloading problem a fundamental challenge in the MEC systems. Motivated by this, in this article, we propose a deadline-aware and energy-efficient computation offloading algorithm, DECO, for scheduling and processing the generated tasks from the IoT devices. The proposed algorithm jointly takes into account the deadline requirement of the tasks and the energy consumption of the IoT devices in the local decision-making process. Also, it considers the priority of the tasks and heterogeneity of ECSs for the task-node mapping process. The extensive simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm improves the deadline satisfaction ratio of delay-sensitive tasks about 85.4% and reduces their average response time up to 62.9% compared to the state-of-the-art method while the amount of increase in the total energy consumption of IoT devices is less than 13.4%.

Getting Suburbs to Do Their Fair Share: Housing Exclusion and Local Response to State Interventions

Massachusetts has engaged in a fifty-year experiment in overriding local zoning to create affordable housing in the suburbs. Studying suburbs as sites of persistent resistance, this work interrogates a local decision-making process to reveal how structures and gaps in the law help to maintain, rather than challenge, the exclusionary status quo. Analysis is based on five years of observations of public hearings across four Boston suburbs. I argue that this decision-making process is characterized by participants’ use of narratives and logics to resist, make sense of, and adapt to the law. Further, although the eventual decision is almost always to build housing, this study reveals a structural similarity between zoning and the law as well as a cultural process of sense-making that leads to minimal compliance and a reassertion of the local power over regional housing needs.

People-centred design methods in a local decision-making process: masterplan for Lisbon's multimodal mobility hubs

Lisbon's City Council and EMEL (the city's mobility and parking management company) have been working on a concept for Mobility Hubs in Lisbon through a comprehensive participatory process that brings together a broad spectrum of stakeholders. We have adopted a design thinking approach rooted in a thorough user research process aiming at better understanding unmet needs, preferences, and expectations of city users, whilst co-creating alternative value propositions for future mobility hubs. Stakeholder outreach has been pivotal to ensuring active participation of all communities: passengers, former passengers, transport operators, local and regional administration bodies, civil society, among others have been voicing their views and concerns to help transform five bus terminals of Lisbon into inviting places of connectivity. Our goal is to better inform future investment choices.

Shortfalls of deliberative democracy in Georgia: the analysis of the General Assembly of a Settlement

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the reasons for citizens’ refusal to participate in public deliberation through the Georgian mechanism of the General Assembly of a Settlement (GAofS) in the remote communities of Georgia. This paper draws on the existing academic literature on effective deliberation processes and reasons behind the public’s disengagement from them to explain Georgian public’s withdrawal from the deliberation processes. By applying the analytical framework on effective deliberation and logic of non-participation, this article uses the case study approach and qualitative research methods to show how façade deliberation processes cause public disenchantment with engagement in local decision-making processes and reinforce the public image of civic participation mechanisms as pointless efforts.

Youth Participation and Disaster: Examining Suggestions on Disaster Risk Reduction Management in Metro Manila, Philippines

Communication is critical in all areas of disaster risk reduction management (DRRM). Efficient and comprehensive information is essential to minimize unanticipated and unexpected economic and social repercussions and increase the response's effectiveness. Furthermore, the local government unit should discuss youth involvement in DRRM to develop inclusive policies. Thus, this study examines 752 typhoon-and-flood-related textual suggestions of youth leaders and volunteers from different typhoon and flood communities in Metro Manila, Philippines to discuss emerging themes on DRRM. Using Google Forms, this study gathers suggestions regarding the disaster governance measures of the participant's respective communities. Youth leaders' and volunteers' suggestions for better disaster preparedness revealed seven thematic recommendations including the need for more robust early warning systems, information campaigns, capacity building and tactics for increasing personal preparedness. Filipino values such as damayan (to give sympathetic support), pakikipagkapwa (having a sense of shared identity) and bayanihan (a spirit of communal unity) have also emerged from the suggestions. The role of women and persons with disability was also a repeated theme that will empower them in times of disaster. Overall, this study provides initial insight into youths' role in increasing inclusivity in local government and communities' decision-making processes on disaster risk reduction management.

Evaluating the integration of transportation planning in municipal official plans

ABSTRACT Municipal official plans are useful for mainstreaming transportation objectives into local development planning and decision-making processes. Using a plan quality evaluation, this article assesses whether and how well transportation planning is integrated in municipal official plans of the 30 most populous municipalities in Canada. The results suggest this integration is weak, with a notable absence of rigorous data to inform transportation content in official plans, and poor monitoring and evaluation of transportation goals and policies. Furthermore, few plans provided details about how transportation-related policies would be implemented.

An exploration of the ceramic technology of a northern Chilean community, evidence from the Caleta Vitor Archaeological Complex

This paper discusses the results of statistical analyses of the domestic ceramic assemblage from the Caleta Vitor Archaeological Complex, northern Chile, a collection that spans 2500 years. Mineralogical analyses were also conducted on a selection of the ceramic sherds using X-ray diffraction (XRD) as well as paste and petrographic analyses. The results of this study correspond with prior research (Bland et al., 2017a) which concluded that the majority of domestic ceramics from the Caleta Vitor Archaeological Complex were manufactured using local resources. Here, we expand this discussion by identifying four ceramic paste groups that would constitute local pottery traditions of manufacture. The identified paste groups are relatively consistent and span almost all time periods examined (Formative c. 4000–1500 BP through to Hispanic c. 467 BP Periods). These results support the argument that these ceramic traditions were maintained by the coastal communities of Caleta Vitor, despite the fact that they were integrated into interregional networks of interactions through time, including their relationships with powerful Andean polities. These apparent continuities in domestic ceramic production allow us to reflect on local decision-making processes throughout relevant cultural phases, and to conclude that foreign pottery did not have an exchange value.

UAV Mapping and 3D Modeling as a Tool for Promotion and Management of the Urban Space

In the past few decades, the management of urban spaces with appropriate tools has been in constant discussion due to the plethora of new technologies that have emerged for participatory planning, drone mapping, photogrammetry and 3D modeling. In a multitude of situations, considerable progress has been made regarding the strategic impact of the successful use of technology for the development of urban spaces. The current era provides us with important digital tools and the opportunity to test new perspectives in the sustainable development of cities. This paper aims to explore the contribution of UAVs to the spatial mapping process of urban space, with the goal of collecting quantifiable and qualitative information to use for 3D modeling that can enable a more comprehensive understanding of the urban environment, thus facilitating urban regeneration processes. Three-dimensional models of high accuracy are not mandatory for this research. The location of the selected research area is particularly interesting due to its boundaries, urban voids and public space that can evolve through public participation. The results can be used for crowdsourcing in participatory decision-making processes and for exploring the consequences that these have on the built environment, and they can be used as a new means of involvement of citizens in local decision-making processes.

Alternate Democratic Institutions Panchayats of India: Away from the Western Ideas of Democracy

It is a fallacy to believe that democracy originated in Ancient Greece, it wasn’t truly democratic by todays’ standards, however it was something that philosophers and thinkers of the enlightenment could hark back upon to deliver us the modern concept of western democracy. Indeed, it is a western democracy only and not a true world democracy that it should be, it failed to consider the democratic traditions that have existed all across human civilizations past and present, Institutions that have existed through millennia and continue to do so. The thinkers of western Europe used the romantic ideas of Greek democracy and tried to create an alternative to the despotic monarchies that existed at that time in Europe, but all they managed to do was substitute heredity with elections, the power institutions of the government as they were during the reign of monarchs continue to remain bureaucratic and powerful. This paper tries to examine the alternative institutional structure of Panchayats by looking at the cases of two Pani Panchayats, one Van Panchayat, one Kashtkari Panchayat and the Khap Panchayats of North West India; how they have evolved historically, and how and why are they socially embedded creating a natural basis for establishing direct democracy at the grassroots level. Upon the investigation of the above cases, it is found that not only do Panchayats divide and decentralise the exercise of power, but it also provides indigenous institutional legitimacy to such exercise. It enhances the participation of not just all, but more specifically the participation of the marginalised sections of the society (women and untouchables) in their local decision-making processes. The examination of the Khap Panchayats and their historical evolution also points to the fact that social institution of Panchayats is not perfect, and they require rationalised restructuring in order to achieve its goal of establishing truly democratic institution at the grassroots level. Finally concluding that a socially embedded democratic institution like the Panchayat in India that has evolved with the society itself is a more suitable democratic institution, which can form the basis of a truly responsible democratic government.

Role of gender and political connectedness after extreme events in coastal Bangladesh

This study focuses on how gender and political engagement contribute to disaster management in Bangladesh, specifically in disaster relief and rehabilitation. It is based on empirical evidence from southwest coastal Bangladesh, particularly in Dacope Upazila, and applies a mixed-method approach. Results show that gender has a significant influence on the acquisition of post-disaster relief and rehabilitation supports. Females, including those widowed and divorced, get more relief than males. Nevertheless, older women are not given priority for aftermath disaster relief. Moreover, gender plays a vital role in the household’s overall economic strength and is crucial for disaster resilience. Furthermore, respondents’ families who were, in some way, closely connected with local social and political leaders, obtained more relief and aids. The results indicate that socio-political connectedness, irrespective of gender, still dominates local decision-making processes in disaster recovery. Alongside women’s empowerment, regular monitoring and evaluation of relief and rehabilitation programs must improve, to reduce the traditional barriers to effective disaster management (arising from (dis)connectedness to local social power) in the face of climate change.

Unpacking the complexity of the UK plastic packaging value chain: A stakeholder perspective

The pace to achieving a sustainable plastics economy remains noticeably slow. This could be due to a lack of understanding of the role and importance of stakeholder dynamics in the plastic packaging system. Therefore, this study aims to unpack and assess the role of stakeholders in improving the plastics recycling rate and circularity in the UK, using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) drinks bottles value chain as a case study. Via the theoretical lens of stakeholder theory the study identifies and groups the stakeholders in the PET drinks bottles value chain, and tries to make sense of, and analyse, their complex interactions via the use of the Complex Value Optimisation for Resource Recovery (CVORR) systems thinking approach. This integrated approach reveals, that even though external stakeholders (e.g. NGOs, trade associations) engage with internal stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, consumers, investors), and vice versa, at different levels and scales in promoting the circularity in the PET drink bottles value chain, there is a strong drive in incentivising the production and consumption processes. This is driven by the significant lobbying power of internal stakeholders operating upstream of the PET bottles value chain (i.e. producers and brand owners), that is supported by financial institutions, and which, strongly influences national and local government policies and decision-making processes. Meanwhile, the waste management processes are short-sighted, being unable to gain improved momentum and increase the PET bottles recycling rates. This dynamic conceals, and somewhat retains, the prevailing resistance in removing the infrastructural, regulatory and technological lock-ins. A collaboration between internal and external stakeholders is paramount to sustainably managing PET drinks bottles in the UK and achieving a transition to a sustainable circular plastics economy. Creating a level playing field and fostering a closer collaboration between all stakeholders involved in the system can aid the development of new value networks, and support new policy interventions that can improve circularity in the plastic packaging sector.

Проблемні аспекти процесу впровадження публічних механізмів розвитку територіальних громад

Розглянуто сучасні проблемні аспекти проведення децентралізації в Україні. Доведено необхідність вирішення зазначених проблем для подальшої оптимізації регіонального зростання. Визначено особливості впровадження публічних механізмів в умовах неврегульованого розвитку територіальних громад.

Strategic Assessment of Neighbourhood Environmental Impacts on Mental Health in the Lisbon Region (Portugal): A Strategic Focus and Assessment Framework at the Local Level

Scientific evidence shows that each place/environment generates specific conditions with associated impacts on the mental health and well-being of the population. A holistic, multilevel and integrated environmental approach to mental health enhances the understanding of this phenomena, supporting the local decision-making processes to improve spatial planning of neighbourhood environments. The aim of this study is to develop a strategic assessment framework, based on four municipalities in the Lisbon Region (Portugal), that explores policy and planning initiatives capable of generating favourable neighbourhood environmental conditions for mental health while also detecting risks. Using baseline results of significant statistical associations between individuals’ perceptions of their neighbourhood environment and their mental health in the Lisbon Region, a Strategic Focus on Environmental and Mental Health Assessment framework (SEmHA) was built, by applying the methodology “Strategic Thinking for Sustainability” in Strategic Environmental Assessment, developed by Partidário in 2012. Taking into account the promotion of the population’s mental health, four critical decision factors of neighbourhood environments were identified: (1) public space quality (e.g., improving sense of place), (2) physical environment quality (e.g., low levels of noise exposure), (3) professional qualification and creation of economic activities (e.g., attracting new economic activities), and (4) services and facilities (e.g., improving access to health and education services). The proposed strategic focus and assessment framework contributes to ensuring that interventions in neighbourhood environments truly achieve community mental health benefits and reduce inequalities, thus helping policy makers to assess impacts at the local level.

MECHANISMS OF CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT: THE NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

A prerequisite for the development of the local community are different forms of citizen participation in achieving goals of interest to the local community and meeting their personal needs at the local level. Citizens can participate in the local community activities directly or indirectly. The direct participation in local life is exercised on the basis of strictly formal legal framework, including civic initiative, referendum, and citizens' assembly. The quality of the relationship between the local community and the citizens largely determines the degree of citizens’ indirect participation in political life. This paper will address the mechanisms of citizen participation at the local level, with specific reference to public debate and public hearings as mechanisms enabling citizens to participate in local decision-making processes, draw attention to problems and difficulties, and insist on the obligation of local self-government bodies to transparently implement some procedures envisaged in the 2018 amendments to the Local Self-Government Act. The paper also elaborates on other forms of citizen participation, such as consultations, information requests, petitions, surveys, and other available forms of citizen participation in public life.

Disentangling justice as recognition through public support for local climate adaptation policies: Insights from the Southwest US

Public policy in the US is partially influenced by public opinion. Studies that focus on the factors that predict urban populations' strong supports for local climate adaptation policies are still lacking. Engaging environmental and public policy behavior and recognition justice approaches, we argue people's support for urban climate policies reveal certain vulnerable communities' lack of recognition in local adaptation decision-making processes. Using the 2011 Phoenix Area Social Survey, we focus on two climate adaptation policies: 1) increasing the number of trees planted along public streets, a nature-based solution; 2) engineering new paving materials that absorb less heat”, a technology-oriented infrastructure configuration to deal with rising temperatures in the Phoenix Metro Area, Arizona. We found climate change beliefs and acknowledging climate change as a threat to people's households and ways of life are the strongest predictors supporting the two suggested local climate policies. While individuals other than non-Hispanic White background and who identify themselves as liberal strongly support a nature-based solution, people who are 41 to 56 years of age support a technology-oriented infrastructure configuration. Further studies must focus on the persistent power asymmetries and divergence in regulations spurred from the state and local governments that inhibit further climate actions through urban planning and design.

Participation of Citizens in Public Financial Decision-Making in Serbia

Participation in the local public finance decision-making process in Serbia is not a new concept as it was implemented even during the ‘Titoistic’ period. However, direct participation is still in an infant phase altogether with the low interest of citizens in participating in local financial decision-making procedures. The aim of this paper is to explain the main types of civic participation in the local financial decision-making process (i.e., referendum voting on self-imposed contribution, participatory budgeting, and civic crowdfunding) and to focus on the main factors that lead to a low participation of citizens in such processes. Additionally, the article analyses how these factors affect general mistrust in politics and society. For this purpose, a total of N=421 citizens were interviewed. Using the principal component analysis, the following three main components for low participation were defined: 1) lack of knowledge, 2) lack of interest, and 3) lack of political will. Thereafter, using the regression analysis, the study confirmed that the first two components are statistically significant predictors for mistrust in politics and society.

Multi-Temporal Evaluation of Quantitative and Phenological Vegetation Dynamics Using Sentinel-2 Images in North Horr (Kenya)

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Horn of Africa is getting drier. This research aims at assessing browning and/or greening dynamics and the suitability of Sentinel-2 satellite images to map changes in land cover in a semiarid area. Vegetation dynamics are assessed through a remote sensing approach based on densely vegetated areas in a pilot area of North Horr Sub-County, in northern Kenya, between 2016–2020. Four spectral vegetation indices are calculated from Sentinel-2 images to create annual multi-temporal images. Two different supervised classification methods—Minimum Distance and Spectral Angle Mapper—are then applied in order to identify dense vegetated areas. A general greening is found to have occurred in this period with the exception of the year 2020, with an average annual percentage increase of 19%. Results also highlight a latency between climatic conditions and vegetation growth. This approach is for the first time applied in North Horr Sub-County and supports local decision-making processes for sustainable land management strategies.