Local Authority Practice Research Articles

The critical potential of institutional theory revisited — a field study of the rationalisation of budget fairness through agentic actorhood

PurposeThis paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the usefulness of institutional theory to critical studies. It pursues this topic by exploring some of the possibilities for allocating local authority funds more fairly for poor residents. This paper aims to shed light on the institution of budgeting in a democratically elected local government under austerity.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses world culture theory, the study of the devolution of cultural authority to individuals and organisations through which they turn into agentic actors. Based on a field study of Newcastle City Council’s (NCC’s) budget-related practices, the paper uses the notion of actorhood to explore the use of fairness in austerity budgets.FindingsThis paper documents how new concerns with fairness gave rise to new local authority practices and gave NCC characteristics of actorhood. This paper also shows why it might make sense for a local authority that is managing austerity budget cuts and cutting back on services to make more detailed performance information public, rather than attempting to hide service deterioration, as some prior literature suggests. This paper delineates the limits to actorhood, in this study’s case, principally the inability to overcome structural constraints of legal state power.Practical implicationsThe paper is suggestive of ways in which local government can fight inequality in opposition to central government austerity.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative accounting study of actorhood. It coins the phrase fairness assemblage to denote a combination of various accounting technologies, organisational elements and local government practices.

Young people’s everyday pathways into drug harms in Shan State, Myanmar

In recent decades, youth drug use has become a cause of increasing concern across Asia and has inspired hardening drug control measures. However, consistently missing from drug narratives is a deeper engagement with young people themselves on why they use drugs and an understanding of the social, political, economic and cultural forces that shape their interactions with drugs. By engaging with the lived experiences of young people in the Myanmar city of Taunggyi, this paper offers new insights into the everyday pathways and practices through which systemic risk factors – poverty, large-scale local drug production and poor welfare provision – materialise into drug harms. This paper draws attention to three factors that shape these pathways: first, the role that drug-selling and drug consumption plays in the coping strategies that people deploy in an environment of economic hardship; second, the intersections between drug use and gendered conceptions of youth; and, third, the everyday institutional practices of local authorities. Exploring young people’s testimonies offers a grounded perspective for considering what can be done to reduce drug harms in a context where the structural determinants of drug risks are deeply entrenched and, in the context of post-coup Myanmar, likely to worsen.

Майнове оподаткування: контекст фіскальної децентралізації в Україні

Fiscal decentralization has strengthened the capacity of governments to finance and provide public goods and services. Fulfillment of local government functions helps to balance the consumers’ individual preferences according to their needs. In Ukraine, each local authority should be entrusted with the management of the lands of relevant community in compliance with the principle of ubiquity as well as with the right to collect land tax. Local taxes on real estate and transport, typical for countries with capable local self-government, have also been introduced. Global challenges, international obligations, insufficient effectiveness of modern budgetary instruments of anti-crisis regulation make the improvement of property taxation necessary. Given new economic realities and the best world practice, it is necessary to reconsider the use of tools to support and stimulate regional development. The diversity of sources of payment and objects of taxation is one of essential problems in the collection of property tax. Its solution is the differentiated application of benefits, rates, deferrals, installments or to objects of taxation (according to the degree of participation of a property in the production process), or to entities (depending on their investment, social, environmental activity in the context of sustainable development). Such approaches are extremely important given the current trends of urbanization - their application will give the property tax an opportunity to perform the function of stimulating better use of funds and distribution of net income of enterprises and households in favor of budget revenues. Property taxes are progressive for those who have low incomes and can receive discounts when paying them. The spread of this approach during the post-crisis recovery of the national economy should be facilitated by the best practices of local authorities focused on the tax potential of SMBs. The main advantage of property taxes is a high degree of stability of the tax base. Further improvement of real estate taxation in Ukraine should focus on the prospects of its use in order to form stable sources of budget revenues and de-shadowing of property relations through the establishment of property owners. However, the risks of a low level of production incentives, as well as the understatement of the tax base through the transfer of property rights, still needs considering coordinated tax regimes for legal entities and individuals.

METHODS FOR IDENTIFYING THE BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AT DIFFERENT URBAN SCALES

In the context of increased urbanization, urban green infrastructure (UGI) is an important tool for preserving the structure and functions of natural ecosystems and providing diverse benefits to the human population. The study of benefits is of high importance for the spatial and administrative planning of urban green infrastructures. The present analysis aims to understand the benefits associated with green infrastructures and to develop new possibilities for integrating green infrastructures into urban planning, using the municipality of Buzău as case study. In order to assess the distribution of UGIs in Buzău and to identify the benefits and services associated with them, 227 questionnaires were applied to local population. The case studies offer the possibility to provide concrete examples of current urban green infrastructures management practices. For the municipality of Buzău, the most desired elements of green infrastructure in the city is: parks and public gardens (94.20%), outdoor sports facilities (84.58%), street alignments (79.29%) and flower arrangements (55.06%). The involvement of the local community in the UGI planning process is a strong point, which should be integrated in the practices of local authorities and implemented effectively.

Comparison of diffusion tube\u2013measured nitrogen dioxide concentrations at child and adult breathing heights: who are we monitoring for?

Many towns and cities use passive samplers (diffusion tubes) to monitor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration. However, literature studies have shown large horizontal and vertical concentration gradients for diffusion tubes placed over short distances, raising concerns over the representativeness of monitoring locations. This study examines variations in NO2 concentrations with height at two roadside locations along a busy urban road in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) over an 8-month period. NO2 concentrations were passively monitored at building facades (approximately 7.0 m from the roadside) at heights of 0.7 m, 1.7 m and 2.7 m to replicate child breathing height in prams and buggies, adult breathing height and the Newcastle City Council sampling height (for 2017), respectively. Paired t tests indicated that NO2 concentrations were significantly lower at 2.7 m (4.7% lower, n = 16, p = 0.001) and 1.7 m (7.1% lower, n = 14, p = 0.007) compared with those at 0.7 m. There was no statistically significant difference between NO2 concentrations measured at 2.7 m and 1.7 m, indicating that UK local authority practice of placing diffusion tubes at higher than adult breathing height does not result in underreporting of NO2 concentrations for regulatory purposes. The results have clear public health implications as they provide evidence that young children, in an urban setting and close to busy roadways, may be exposed to higher NO2 concentrations compared with adults in the same location. We have shown that such differences might not be adequately reflected in the monitoring data from municipal authorities.

Designing Human Rights for Duty Bearers: Making the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Part of Everyday Practice at the Local Government Level

In most countries, local governments bear primary responsibility for ensuring everyone has access to water and sanitation services. For the human rights to water and sanitation to move from recognition to realisation, they need to become part of the everyday practice of local authorities. Yet the potential for the human rights to water and sanitation to practically inform local efforts towards inclusive, sustainable service delivery has received limited attention to date, with human rights discourse more typically focusing on national and international levels or on building the capacity of rights holders to claim their rights from government. There is considerable opportunity to consider how human rights can constructively inform local government efforts to expand and improve services. This Communication article presents a novel approach to making human rights relevant and actionable for local authorities. Developed by a consortium of WASH-focused organisations and informed by design thinking, the Making Rights Real approach combines user-centred materials showing how human rights can inform local action, with a process of constructive engagement between civil society and local government professionals. The Making Rights Real approach has been applied in 12 countries by 37 civil society organisations to date. In this paper, we describe the development and features of the Making Rights Real approach, share initial results from its implementation, and reflect on the potential for the approach to catalyse transformational change towards local realisation of the human rights to water and sanitation.

Towards a Collaborative Housing Initiative: The Role of Local Authorities

The different forms of collaborative housing, their possible effects on the housing market and urban development processes have gained importance in housing policy and city development debates in many European countries. A shift towards the acceptance and promotion of more collaborative housing concepts can be observed in numerous cities. However, the precise process of co-creation and co-management can be widely different, depending on the exact relation of stakeholders to each other, the legal, economic and institutional environment, the level of business interests involved, and, very importantly, the role local authorities are willing to play in the process. Following three countries and highlighting cases in each of them – Germany, Hungary and the United Kingdom – the article aims to provide a better understanding of how this co-creation process is influenced by the governance concepts and practices of local authorities, arguing that their support becomes even more essential if financial resources are scarce or national legislation – including the laws regulating the housing market – is not supportive.

Spatio-Temporal Zoning of the Urban Lands’ Functioning for Ensuring the Sustainable Development of the City

The problems of the modern land use development in the cities located in the oil and gas producing Siberian regions of Russia are reviewed in the article. The modern scientific ideas about the role of the modern land and property assets in small and medium-sized cities in adverse climatic living environment are explored for this purpose.
 The study is aimed at improving the method for assessing the current organization of the land use in the municipal city of Nefteyugansk. The methodological provisions of land zoning with due consideration for its socioeconomic value and temporal changes are developed. The methodological provisions for a comprehensive assessment of the land use conditions aimed at using the spatio-temporal land zoning model are improved.
 The results of the study can be used in the practice of local authorities and legal entities in urban planning, land and property relations, housing and utility services in territorial planning, development of land and property relations in the market conditions, improvement of the land payment system, determination of the land investment attractiveness, and creation of a unified basis for an objective land plot evaluation. The introduction of the results of the study into practice will allow to increase the efficiency of the land use, increase its value, and bring the socioeconomic indicators of the land and property assets of the city to a higher level.

Citizenship for All? Mobility and the “Right” Way to Live

The concept of citizenship is contested and related to rights, entitlements, duties, membership of a political community, and normative judgments about the right way to live. This concept of citizenship does not apply to all who live within a geographical space and some minority groups may be excluded. We examine how one such minority group, the Traveller/Gypsy community in the U.K., has been excluded from claiming the full rights of citizenship as a result of their way of life. Based on an analysis of government documents as normative artifacts and interviews with relevant stakeholders, we explore how local authority practices may lead to the exclusion of this group from full citizenship.

Ethical and political dilemmas of local self-government in Poland in the course of systemic transformations (1990–2018)

The study presents critical reflections on the course and results of Polish local self-government reforms from March 1990, when after 40 years of the system of territorial soviets (national councils), self-government was reintroduced into communes, until January 2018, when an attempt to improve the systemic institutions of self-government in communes, poviats and voivodships was once again revisited. The author points out significant discrepancies between the basic ethical and political values of local self-government, i.e. democracy, independence and efficiency, and the changing content of self-government systemic laws as well as the practice of local authorities’ operations, and formulates proposals aimed at repairing Polish local self-government by adjusting its organisation and functioning to the principles resulting from the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the European Charter of Local Self-Government. He considers as the most important the elimination of pathological phenomena of simulated local democracy which include: a drastically low turnout in elections and referenda, the disappearance of democratic responsibility of local self-government bodies, and the autonomy of the directly elected executive body of the commune from the influence of the local representation. From this point of view, he positively assesses the new regulations, strengthening the guarantee of transparency of operations carried out by local self-government bodies and control rights of councillors, as well as expanding the catalogue of initiative, consultative and control powers of citizens. He points out, however, that ensuring real democracy in of the local authorities requires a deeper reconstruction of the principles of self-government, the election process, and strengthening the role of representation in creating and enforcing the responsibility of executive bodies.

The continuity of social care when moving across regional boundaries

Summary This paper reports the experiences of adults in receipt of social care when relocating to new local authorities, and of family carers. While many matters need to be considered when moving, the study focused specifically on the ‘portability’ of social care. The study draws on data from semi-structured interviews conducted between July and November 2013 with 12 adults who had relocated between English local authorities. Data were collected prior to the implementation of the Care Act 2014; the potential impact of the Act in respect of relocation is considered. Findings Although some positive experiences were identified, participants primarily reported challenges when moving with social care support. Five themes were identified, these related to the amount of organisation, planning and activity required; the need for a timely approach and the risk of delays and interruptions to care delivery; differences between the practices of local authorities; a lack of control and involvement; a negative impact on emotional and physical well-being. As a result of such difficulties, some experienced delays or interruptions to their care and support; lost all or some of their care package; experienced stress, anxiety and worry. Applications The paper documents the experiences of people relocating with social care support, which have been little explored to date within the UK or internationally, and contributes to the evidence base in respect of relocation and portability of care. It highlights the importance of smooth transitions for those relocating between local authorities, and the potential for social workers to assist by addressing potential problems.

The hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control

PurposeThis paper aims to trace the hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the contexts that gave rise to hybridisation than do previous accountability research frameworks.Design/methodology/approachUsing practice theory, this paper interprets the findings from a field study of Newcastle City Council and a review of relevant local authority regulation for England, stretching back to the 1980s.FindingsThe hybridisation of financial and service expertise has entailed major changes to the practices on which local authority management depends, fuelled by a changing societal role of local authorities. Frequently, local authorities are no longer providers of public services but enablers who purchase services and manage arms-length contracts. This paper identifies some of the ways in which three structural elements that underpin local authority management practices have evolved to give rise to novel practices.Research limitations/implicationsEven though this paper’s research into changing regulatory frameworks, rules and evolving local authority financial practices is based on institutional changes in England since the 1980s, the fieldwork element which fleshes out certain implications for local authority practices has focused on Newcastle City Council. Future research could fruitfully examine these issues in other local authorities.Practical implicationsThe hybridisation of financial and service expertise has contributed to reshaping local government beyond the rules that are put in place for regulating the sector by giving rise to new practices. Recent key developments include new service delivery arrangements, for example, through council-owned subsidiaries or third-sector organisations. It is important that, in an austerity context, new risks to “off the books” service quality is matched by new control and audit arrangements. Moreover, the professional bodies that service local government should recognise the new forms of hybridisation of finance and service expertise and ensure arrangements for the changing skill sets of those involved in service provision.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to analyse the emergence of hybrid financial expertise in the public sector with reference to distinct structural elements of the relevant practices.

Household parking facilities: relationship to travel behaviour and car ownership

Abstract Few studies have investigated how parking requirements (norms) for households and home parking availability influence car ownership and car-use. The common practice of local authorities is to use minimum parking norms for housing, and, in some urban areas, also maximum parking norms. This means that local authorities in general do not aim to influence car-use or car ownership by, for example, restricting the number of parking spaces or locating them some distance away. The objective of this paper is to analyse whether there are systematic differences in car ownership and car-use that can be linked to differences in parking norms, parking facilities and location. This knowledge would be of value to both the research community and authorities. We use the dataset of the Norwegian National Travel Survey (NTS) 2013 consisting of about 60,000 interviews of individuals 13 years and older. A sample of over 2,000 urban dwellers was selected from this NTS for an additional in-depth parking survey. We asked detailed questions about home parking. The NTS 2013 and parking survey were merged and travel habits and background variables linked with detailed information about home parking availability. This provided an excellent opportunity to analyse how variations in parking facilities influence travel behaviour and car ownership. Our data show that access to private or reserved parking triples the likelihood of car ownership. Trip frequency does not change with car ownership or access to home parking, but it does affect mode share. The longer the distance between home and the actual location of home parking the more reduced the car modal share. People are on average willing to accept more than 100 m between home and home parking. Physical separation of the two would therefore facilitate more efficient housing and less car driving. Free street parking may jeopardise this, however.

Governance and the Development of Tourism in the Conditions of a Clash of Powers and “Actors” at a Local Level

Purpose. The article addresses the issue of cooperation between the authorities, on the one hand and tourist entrepreneurs as well as non-profit organizations on the other in the development of tourism. The aim of the article is to present the factors determining the participation and activity of tourist entrepreneurs in local governance. Method. In the theoretical part of this paper, the ways of understanding governance were discussed, highlighting its ambiguity as a theoretical concept and a method for the description and analysis of governing practices. In the empirical part, the results of interviews conducted among 15 tourism entrepreneurs operating in the Polish Carpathians were presented. These helped to identify the expectations, motivation and barriers of subjects who were entering the tourist business and attempted to closely collaborate with local authorities in governance. Findings. In the conclusion, it was stated e.g., that by cooperating with the local government, entrepreneurs join resources with government institutions and implement them. In this manner, the Carpathian tourist companies attempt to mobilize the authorities in order to complete the main tasks that are considered strategic for the development of local tourism. Research and conclusion limitations. Exploratory research. Practical implications. The results can be used in the governing practices of local authorities. Originality. The article fills the gap concerning the shortage of domestic scientific literature on the relationship of governance and tourism development at a local level. Type of paper. Empirical research.

The emergence of green infrastructure as promoting the centralisation of a landscape perspective in spatial planning—the case of Ireland

The ‘landscape’ approach to planning and design has long since advanced a social–ecological perspective that conceives ecosystems health and human well-being as mutually constitutive. However, conventional public sector organisational arrangements segregate and discretely administer development issues, thereby militating against the holistic viewpoint necessary to redress the entwined nature of complex planning issues. The emergence and continuing evolution of green infrastructure (GI) thinking seeks to redress this problem by promoting interdisciplinary collaboration to deliver connected and functionally integrated environments. This paper reflects upon the ongoing development and institutionalisation of GI in Ireland as a means to critically evaluate ‘if’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ GI thinking promotes the centralisation of landscape principles in public sector planning. Drawing on a review of local authority practices and interviews with local authority officials, the paper traces and explains the concept’s growth from the ‘rebranding’ of ecological networks to its current manifestation as a new mode of collaborative planning for multifunctional environments. This material is then employed to discuss the potential benefits and barriers encountered by GI planning more generally. Lessons are subsequently extrapolated for the advancement of landscape principles through innovative GI planning practices in other jurisdictions.

Environmental and political implications of Vietnam's water vulnerabilities: A multiscale assessment

Vietnam's low‐lying areas of the Lower Mekong Basin are prone to floods, salt water inundation, and riparian competition with upstream neighbours. Vietnam's opening to the global economy, accompanied by industrialization and a rapidly growing population, impose multiscale (global, regional, local) stresses on urban and rural water systems resulting in water contamination and groundwater overdraft. Water vulnerability is a function of both natural and social hazards and depends on the scope of capital investment, political and ideological institutions, managerial capacity and governance. Water distribution and riparian ecosystem health are also hydropolitical issues related to dam‐building activity by Vietnam and its transboundary neighbours, Laos, Cambodia and particularly China, whose territory contains the source of the Mekong River. A multiscale assessment of Vietnam's interlinked water vulnerabilities indicates that the resilience of the country's social‐ecological water system rests on peaceful resolution of regional transboundary conflicts based on shared economic interests and on improved managerial practices of local authorities.

Approaches to Working with Children and Families: A Review of the Evidence for Practice

This article explores a range of approaches to working with children and families within Children’s Services and Children’s Social Care, in a UK local authority context. There are a variety of established approaches, supported by different concepts and theories. Given the substantial recent and developing changes in the political, social and economic context for supporting families in need, collating academic and practical evidence to inform both theory and decision-making are vital. The article has a practice focus for Children’s Services, but it is also relevant and has implications for a much wider readership. Evidence was gathered through a purposive and rapid review and aggregated with practice evidence from various sources. An array of issues is considered relating to the context, theory, application, implementation and evaluation of taking one or several approaches. Overall, there is a very limited evidentiary basis, either from research or local authority practice, for adopting any one, wholesale approach to working with children and families in a local authority context over another, but there is emerging evidence of the benefits that certain models and approaches could have, and anecdotally the decision to adopt one formal model appears to be increasing.

Health promotion in Danish schools: local priorities, policies and practices.

This article discusses the findings from a study mapping out the priorities, policies and practices of local authorities concerning health promotion (HP) and health education (HE) in primary and lower secondary schools in Denmark. The aim of the study was to identify the gaps, tensions and possibilities associated with the demand to increase the quality and effectiveness of HP in schools. The recent national school reform, which emphasizes the importance of health and well-being while simultaneously increasing the focus on performance and accountability in terms of subject proficiency and narrowly defined academic attainment, provides the broader political context for the study. Data were generated through a structured online survey administered to all 98 Danish municipalities. Respondents were educational consultants or others representing the administrative units responsible for the municipality's schools. The findings were discussed within the conceptual framework of Health Promoting Schools. The study points to a potential tension between the health and education sectors, despite evidence of intersectoral collaboration. While there is a strong policy focus on health and well-being in schools, it is disconnected from the utilization of the HE curriculum by the municipal consultants. The study also points to a lack of professional development opportunities for teachers in the field of HP in schools. On the basis of these findings and theoretical perspectives used, we argue that HP in schools needs to (re)connect with the core task of the school, education, and to integrate both health and education goals in local priorities, policies and practices.

The options of local authorities for addressing climate change and energy efficiency through environmental regulation of companies

Environmental regulation of companies is sometimes in the literature characterised as a successive broadening of focus and policy instruments: from applying command-and-control mechanism to get companies to clean and/or dilute local pollutants through end-of-pipe solutions; towards applying various means to influence and facilitate companies to act proactively in preventing pollution through cleaner production, waste prevention and resource efficiency.This understanding is contested in this article. The article documents instead a gap in respect to the local authorities actual execution of the direct regulation of companies in Denmark. The practice of the local competent authorities is found to primarily still target local environmental concerns by command-and-control means.The objective of the article is to analyse this discrepancy between the overall representation of regulatory trends and the actual practices of local authorities in Denmark. The overall constraints that local authorities encounter are investigated in respect to: 1) Addressing energy efficiency and reduction of GHG emissions through juridical requirements in permits and injunctions, and 2) Facilitating and promoting reductions of energy consumption and GHG emissions during inspections.The assessment is based on the triangulation of different data: a) qualitative interviews with environmental officers from seven local authorities taking part in a EU life + project, Carbon 20; b) a documentary review of political documents and evaluations of the Danish regulations; as well as c) an interview and subsequent correspondence with an employee at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

Instrumenty partycypacji społecznej w teorii i praktyce zintegrowanego zarządzania miastem

The article aims to present and assess the instruments of social participation in the new, integrated city management. Three types of tools, that best suit ideas of social engagement and the innovative, integrated and comprehensive approach to the city management, were established. Noting the complexity of the problem and the practice of local authorities, following instruments were indicated: public consultations, charrette workshops and participatory budget. The analysis of these tools allowed to assess and identify the instruments best suited to the integrated city management.