Top-down Development Research Articles

From Reconstruction to Development: The Early Years of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Conceptualization of Rural Welfare, 1945–1955

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the early years of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and its conceptualization of ‘rural welfare’, an approach that foresaw the modernization of agricultural societies and the alleviation of poverty through improvements in labor, housing, health, education of people working in agriculture. Based on the correspondence of FAO officials and experts, the paper shows how in the late 1940s, the Rural Welfare Division, under the leadership of its Director Horace Belshaw, promoted a low-modernist and local-sensitive approach to rural development that emphasized the subjectivity of welfare and that was skeptical of top-down development programs. As the paper argues, Belshaw's holistic understanding of rural communities was abandoned in the early 1950s in favor of an increasingly technical development consultancy, characterized by short-term interventions rather than by an intellectual and scientific debate about the larger implications of development.

Institutionalising local economic development practice in Ghana

In recent times, the term ‘local economic development’ has been conceptualised and introduced as a bottom-up participatory development strategy in Ghana. It is intended to be implemented at the district level to facilitate the revitalisation of the local economy and create jobs for local residents. Using in-depth interviews and the analysis of relevant policy documents, this paper evaluates efforts aimed at institutionalising the practice in local institutional frameworks and development planning practice in the country. The paper found out that processes aimed at institutionalising contemporary local economic development practice in Ghana are not making any meaningful impact. Institutional frameworks such as the structuring of development policymaking and planning in the country are still rigid and promote bureaucratic top-down development decision-making processes. Similarly, the promotion of a meaningful bottom-up decentralised planning system is only a well-packaged talk by policymakers in the country. Evidence shows that there is a clear lack of political will to implement reforms, particularly the new decentralisation policy that seeks to make District Assemblies in Ghana responsive to local economic development promotion. There is the need for a conscious effort towards making local economic development practice matter in national and local development endeavour in Ghana.

Generation of Abstract Driver Models for IP Integration Verification

This paper proposes a new application of formal methods in the domain of low-level software (firmware) development of Embedded Systems. The development of low-level device drivers is difficult because of the complex interaction between the device hardware, the driver core routines and the application programmer's interface (API). Also the development of firmware components using such drivers is difficult because the driver specification may be ambiguous or erroneous or it may be misinterpreted by the developer. In this paper, we propose an abstract FSM model (“AFSM”) to support systematic top-down development of low-level device drivers. The model serves as a formal specification that can be soundly refined into an implementation. The AFSM can also be generated semi-automatically in a bottom-up approach from the binary (machine code) of the driver. This allows for generating a formal documentation of a driver software that may be available as third-party IP for which no source code is available. The generated AFSM can serve as a technical reference during integration of such “black-box” driver IP and when developing firmware components that call the functions of the API. We present three case studies with industrial HW device and SW driver IPs demonstrating the potential of the proposed approach.

Key challenges of digital business ecosystem development and how to cope with them

Elaborating on a theoretical outline of digital business ecosystems, the paper describes key challenges in terms of interoperability and actor-related issues. By comparing two scenarios – one from China and one from Germany – different ways to cope with these challenges can be illustrated. The case from China demonstrates a top-down development with a strong focus on interoperability but obstacles remain for the further co-evolution of partners. By contrast, the German scenario outlines the design for a decentralized bottom-up approach according to specific solutions. In this example, distributed competences among partners and a clear customer focus become visible, but a missing technological platform is a severe hindering factor. In summary it reveals that both, the top-down and the bottom-up scenario, show significant benefits for digital business ecosystems. Based on these findings, we see high value in conceptualizing an integrative framework designed to utilize the benefits of both approaches for context-specific advancements of business ecosystems. Therefore, we introduce a laboratory concept for designing, exploring and further testing situated measures and enablers that contribute to the context-specific evolution of ecosystems.

A top-down creation of a cultural cluster for urban regeneration: The case of OCT Loft, Shenzhen

Researchers of related topics agree that the large-scale top-down development of a creative cluster by a real estate developer may obstruct rather than facilitate creativity and creative entrepreneurialism. OCT Loft, a design industry park in Shenzhen, China, is being celebrated as an exception. Based on analyses of primary and secondary data, we find that the Loft’s success can be attributed to two factors. First, the choice of design as the target industry was appropriate. Design is a fast-growing industry and thus needs space for expansion. Second, the developer chose tenants with good reputations in the industry rather than those offering the highest rent. Both these factors are difficult to implement. First, a growing industry is hard to find in a city where urban regeneration is needed. Second, the majority of developers cannot pass up maximising rent for a good reputation as OCT did. Indeed, OCT was able to pursue the Loft’s creative success because giving a good impression to potential clients was expected to result in future opportunities that would raise profit further. In sum, a large-scale top-down development can facilitate creative entrepreneurialism but only when the developer is not hasty in demanding an immediate return on investment.

Identifying Strategic Priorities for the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas Based on Local Community Planning

Purpose: Iran has about 60000 villages with a wide variety of issues and problems. The aim of this study was to understand the real situation, development needs, and priorities of rural communities through local community participation in the planning process. The main questions of this research are: What are the most important issues of the rural communities and the main priorities for their rural development of the local community?; What are the strategies for the development of rural communities and resolving their problems? Methods: The statistical population comprised all rural areas of Iran. The research method was Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) meetings conducted in 120 villages in different provinces of Iran, representing random distribution of the rural communities. In addition to group meetings, field observation, completing questionnaires, and holding interviews with representatives of local community groups have been conducted. Eventually, the obtained data have been prioritized through a questionnaire with 20 experts in this field. Results: The results show that all rural community issues can be grouped into 5 and the most important issues are related to the management problems of the local community, in other words, the role of government institutions as the main authority, engaging in a centralized and top-down development programs.Conclusion: Achieving sustainable development of rural areas and local communities, is only possible through the establishment of a system of governance based on local community planning as they are the main beneficiaries of development programs.

Evaluation of the top-down and bottom-up human capital development consultation programs

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the top-down and bottom-up leadership development consultation programs focused on human capital that improves the performan...

Hungarian-Russian bilingual schools in Hungary during the Soviet occupation (1945–1989)

Through the example of the establishment, functioning, and closing of bilingual schools during the Soviet occupation of Hungary, this paper aims to introduce this segment of public education in Central-Eastern Europe. In the period between 1945 and 1989, the learning of Russian as a compulsory subject was introduced, teaching other languages was restricted, and Hungarian-Russian bilingual schools were launched. The features of their establishment can be connected to political and professional power relations in different sub-periods within the structures of closed language policy. The objective in both states was the education of committed political elite. The first school was established by direct political control and closed because of the 1956 revolution. The second school was established in 1974, through professional and political compromises. The third school opened at the end of the period, as part of a top-down development project involving 14 schools. A number of European target languages (still including Russian) were introduced, which can be regarded as the opening up of language education policy. Relying on sources, documents, and personal recollections, the study aims to reveal the dynamics of the interrelations between controlled language education, University and the changes in Hungarian economic, social, domestic, and foreign policy in the given periods.

Village-Based Institutional Development Strategy to Prevent the Paddy-Field Conversion at Pandeglang Regency, Banten, Indonesia

Indonesia government needs innovative policies preventing the paddy-field conversion in the current era of regional decentralization. Average of paddy-field conversion in Indonesia has reached 187,200 hectares per year. Irrigated-paddy-field in Indonesia that converted to non-agricultural purpose in 2009 had already reached 3.09 million hectares (42.4 percent). The highest conversion areas were in Java and Bali islands that reached 1.67 million hectares. The study in Pandeglang Regency has shown the prior strategy to prevent paddy-field conversion. It requires the integration the protection toward the peasant based on inter- village participatory partnership to develop the rural area. The developed institution should follow the current applicable regulation, namely the Local Public Service Agency or Badan Layanan Umum Daerah (BLUD) to protect the paddy-fields. It does not only by managing logistic to support the production of the peasants, but also as a synchronizer among multi-parties for the empowerment actions of the peasants to manage the paddy-field farming. The government should use various development approach policies to prevent paddy-field conversion. Top-down development and bottom-up approach is required to be affirmed. Moreover, technocratic approach should be supported by participatory development. Otherwise, the stakeholders should be involved to implement the rural-based institutional development strategy preventing the paddy-field conversion.

The Influence of the Society Self-supporting Development Program (SSDP) Towards Regional Development in Serdang Bedagai Regency

Regional Development policy is the whole authority of the Head of the region where the development of the region has a direct impact on society. The direct contribution in policy implementation is anticipated. That is, the principal orientation in improving society’s welfare, so the government policy should reflect the profitable’s development between government and society by presenting the participation in the region. Serdang Bedagai district which is Government people’s participative development policy is “Development Movement Governmental / Gerbang Swara”(The Society Self -Supporting Development Programme / SSDP). Gerbang Swara as a movement is to raise society to build self-support in the which the means and infrastructure needed by society starting from the village and sub-district. There is the participation of society in regional development policy in the participative models by attacking Bedagai Government. The research before shows us there are many problems in the local participation in regional development. The development could be bottom-up development, not top-down development. This research would not criticize the fails or the success of regional development from the research before. This Research is the main strengthening of the model of the which applied in regional development and use the explanatory design and apply survey methods in Serdang Bedagai district. The results of hypothesis testing on each path coefficient Significantly influence the development of the planning region with the direction of the positive relationship. The decision making insignificantly influence on the regional development and going to the negative relationship. Whereas, the dissemination influential is significant on the regional development and going to the positive relations. The implementation influential is significant on the regional development and going to the positive relations. The evaluation process influential is significant on the regional development and going to the positive relations. Conversely, the utilization influential is insignificant on the regional development and going to the positive relations. Although in variable this research is positive and significant but, there are several variables which have no influence or significant impact on regional development.

The development of the Tocharian causative system – top-down or bottom-up?

Abstract Tocharian possesses a highly complex verbal system and has played a major role in theories about the PIE verb in recent decades. While it is certainly true that Tocharian deserves the highest attention for theories about the protolanguage, not every trait of its verbal system has to be explained by direct top-down developments and not every trait can be directly transferred onto the proto-language. The paper discusses the Tocharian causative stems and argues that an inner-Tocharian development for the system of causatives is more likely than deriving the various stems from respective PIE stems directly.

Model Penanggulangan Kemiskinan Berbasis Aset Masyarakat di Kecamatan Jatinangor

The pattern of top-down development often create new problems for society, among others, issues of poverty that occurred in the area of education Jatinangor. The local community were marginalized by the regional changes. Agriculture areas which is the place for working has transformed into educational and residential areas. The change didn’t considering the ability of society to change in accordance with the expected development. Various programs of addressing poverty has been done by the government but the level of unemployment and poverty in the region Jatinangor not significantly reduced. The low level of education of the community in reality that is ironic for an area which has five colleges of higher education. To overcome these problems, Community development is one strategy for urban poverty reduction, Jatinangor has community-owned assets as capital that can be used to reduce the problems of poverty. There are two important issues relating to existing assets include “optimalization” strategy purposes to improve the functioning of the asset in improving the quality of life and solving problemsof poverty, as well as the “revitalization” strategy purposes to improve existing assets or deemed less support or be the ause of the problem of poverty itself.Keywords: Community Development, Assets Based Community Development, Poverty Reduction.

Formal development of multi-agent systems using MAZE

MAZE is an extension of the Object-Z specification language supporting the specification and development of multi-agent systems (MAS). Following recommendations from the agent-oriented software engineering community, it supports three distinct levels of abstraction: (i) the macro level which focusses on the system's overall, global behaviour, independently of how the agents of the system operate and interact, (ii) the meso level which focusses on agent interactions, and (iii) the micro level which focusses on the operation of individual agents. Object-Z's high-level support for component-based specification, which is well suited to modelling MAS, is complemented in MAZE with support for action refinement to facilitate the top-down development process from the macro to micro level, and with a number of syntactic conventions aimed at abstractly specifying the low-level mechanisms required for dealing with asynchronous communication and timing constraints at the micro level. The latter are shorthands for existing Object-Z notation and so require no redefinition of Object-Z's semantics. In this paper, we provide an overview of MAZE and illustrate its use on a non-trivial case study: a swarm robotic algorithm for self-assembly.

Imagined past, present and futures in Murray–Darling Basin communities

ABSTRACTOver the past three decades, irrigation-dependent rural communities in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin have experienced profound economic, social and environmental changes, which they are attempting to accommodate through local government policy. As a contribution to participatory policy design research, in consultation with local governments we carried out focus groups to explore diversity of individuals’ imagined past and present in two rural communities. This was followed by group development of a diverse range of future scenarios and agreement to three likely scenarios. The research identified presence or absence of three underlying themes – irrigation, innovation and inflow of people – that plausibly drive change in these rural communities. These themes are likely to be common to many rural communities that have depended on irrigated agriculture. They provide an example of participatory policy-making, as distinct from the historically employed top-down policy development that has occurred in the Murray–Darling Basin. Because of the diversity of perceptions of past, present and futures, and the ultimate adoption of business-as-usual within the final local government plans, the research emphasises the need to put effort into community deliberations to build cohesion and share ownership of the process for delivering locally nuanced community policy.

Developing a Model for Participation of Public, Private, Beneficiaries, and Associations towards a Sustainable Agricultural Development (Case Study: Central District of Boyer-Ahmad County)

1- INTRODUCTION Participatory development (PD) seeks to engage local populations in development projects. It has taken a variety of forms since it emerged in the 1970s. Local ‘ownership’ is essential to sustain capacity but depends on wide-spread participation. A lot of studies related to participation topics have been conducted recently. But a few of them consider participation between all of stakeholders or beneficiaries of development. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a participatory model for public, private, beneficiary, and association sectors for achieving a sustainable agricultural development in the Central District of Boyer-Ahmad County. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Most of the literature about PD emphasis giving the poor a chance to contribute activities related to their benefits. hoping that development projects will be more sustainable and successful by engaging local population in the development process. PD has become an increasingly accepted method of development practice and is employed by a variety of organizations. It is often presented as an alternative to top-down development approach. There are some questions about the proper definition of PD as it varies depending on the perspective applied. The Social Movement Perspective defines participation as the mobilization of people to eliminate unjust hierarchies of knowledge, power, and economic distribution. The Institutional Perspective defines participation as the reach and inclusion of inputs by relevant groups in the design and implementation of a development project. Based on this approach, a lot of stakeholders play their own role in the process of rural development. No doubt, to achieve real rural development, it is necessary to seek some guidelines for the cooperation of all stakeholders. 3- METHODOLOGY The Grounded Theory as a qualitative research method was used in this study. Based on the data collected from about 92 hours semi-structured interviews with 51 agricultural key informants who were purposefully selected from the study region, the text of the interviews was transcribed and coded using open coding in the 183 primary classes (themes). Then, these themes were categorized into 54 groups and consequently, these groups were also categorized into 21 central categories using theoretical coding. Finally, a model was designed for participation of the supposed stakeholders/ beneficiaries towards a sustainable agricultural development. 4- CONCLUSION As it was mentioned, this study sought to develop a model for collaboration and participation of sectors active in the field of agricultural development including public, private, beneficiaries, and associations towards a sustainable agricultural development. This model contains determinant components (such as participation-orientated strategy of sustainable development of agriculture, private sector quality services, the participation orientation of the land users, systematic leadership of associations, decentralization, and employing local authorities), and constraints (including decentralization and governance of the relations in the public sector, executive and private sector investment restrictions, the economic and cultural poverty of farmers, and institutional and legal challenges existent in the supposed organizations). The contribution and stance of public and private sectors and beneficiaries and associations were coordinated in establishing a balanced participation. This model also makes allowance for monitoring participation orientated network and agricultural database.

One Tool Amongst Many: Considering the Political Potential of Neighbourhood Planning for the Greater Carpenters Neighbourhood, London

Currently within English planning literature there are polarizing debates about whether neighbourhood planning represents a politically useful tool for communities to utilize to challenge and shape top-down government development plans for their neighbourhood. One side of the debate optimistically presents neighbourhood planning as a radical and exciting opportunity for communities who wish to shape development plans for their locality. On the other side of the debate neighbourhood planning is denounced as a post-political governance technology which does not enable communities to meaningfully challenge and shape government development plans for their neighbourhood. This paper will engage with these competing perspectives whilst exploring how the Greater Carpenters Neighbourhood Forum (GCNF) are using neighbourhood planning to try and protect housing on the Carpenters Estate, a council estate in Stratford, east London. This paper begins by providing a brief introduction to community participation in planning in England. Subsequently, this paper discusses benefits and challenges communities face engaging with formal planning mechanisms before specifically exploring perspectives on the challenges of using neighbourhood planning to realize their development aspirations for their neighbourhood. Drawing from interviews, planning document analysis, and ethnographic research carried out over the last year this paper then reflects on how neighbourhood planning is being deployed by the GCNF within a wider repertoire of community activities aimed at ensuring the protection and refurbishment of housing on the Carpenters Estate. Throughout this paper there will be reflection on whether participation in state planning processes represents a politically effective way for communities to shape development plans and outcomes for their neighbourhood. It will be argued that the political potential of neighbourhood planning for communities may be unlocked when it is pursued strategically in concert with a range of other actions aimed at challenging and shaping state development plans for a community’s neighbourhood.

Shifting From Dichotomy to Dualism: The Way to Survive the Indonesia’s Economy

<p>The Indonesia financial crisis in 1997 was an event waiting to happen very long before being precipitated by the Asian crisis. Such a collapse has its root in a development model imposed by a monolithically authoritarian government basically rooted on the topdown development model, the import-based industrial development, and the non-agro industrialization. Any policy measures, monetary-fiscal-trade policies, adopted by the government were generally in favor of import-based industry, IBI, but at the expense of agricultural and local-based economy. Based on an approximately the same scenario, the country’s crisis 2015 lasted longer since the collapse of local currency starting in May 2013. Among several differences, the most significant was the nature of capital flight. Such capital flight in 1997 was basically due to the major need to US dollars for foreign debt payment, whereas that in 2015 was principally due to remarkable economic prospect outside after its collapse following the Greek crisis. The adoption of dichotomy model in economy, protecting extremely strong dependence of the Indonesia economy on the IBI, sacrificing the domestic-based-industry, DBI, has been the central criticisms against the country’s economy as relatively unstable, centralized in Jakarta only, and having minimum value added. Challenging the weaknesses of such an economic model, the country should have been adopting the model of economic dualism positioning IBI and DBI as dual sectors having the same importance</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Economic dichotomy, Economic dualism, DBI, IBI. </p>

Using Architecture to Reason about Information Security

We demonstrate, by a number of examples, that information flow security properties can be proved from abstract architectural descriptions, which describe only the causal structure of a system and local properties of trusted components. We specify these architectural descriptions of systems by generalizing intransitive noninterference policies to admit the ability to filter information passed between communicating domains. A notion of refinement of such system architectures is developed that supports top-down development of architectural specifications and proofs by abstraction of information security properties. We also show that, in a concrete setting where the causal structure is enforced by access control, a static check of the access control setting plus local verification of the trusted components is sufficient to prove that a generalized intransitive noninterference policy is satisfied.

The Naga National Struggle, ‘Framework Agreement’ and the Peace Prospects

The signing of the ‘Framework Agreement’ between the Government of India (GOI) and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muivah) on 3 August 2015 that pledges to restore ‘pride and prestige’ of the Nagas takes place after more than six-and-a-half-decades of violence and militarisation of the Naga society. The Agreement has been signed at a moment when the Naga society is marked by enormous fragmentation from within. While, the GOI through the creation of the state of Nagaland in 1963 and other initiatives created a local ruling class opposed to long-cherished Nagas’ demand for sovereignty; on the other hand, the tribes-centric proliferation of various insurgent outfits has created hostilities within the Naga society. The continuance of security apparatuses like Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 and that of the top-down development paradigm has been in contrast to the social and cultural dynamics of the Naga society. The recent Accord, which has remained silent on those issues, however, has shifted the Naga national discourse from exclusive sovereignty of the Nagas in Nagaland to that of shared sovereignty of the Nagas within the Union of India. While, there have been celebrations of the Accord among the civil society forces in Nagaland spearheaded by Naga Hoho who for long have endeavoured to sustain ceasefires between GOI and the insurgent outfits in the state, there have, however, been serious reservations in regard to the efficacy of the Accord to restore peace, harmony and national pride among the Nagas.

거창군 협업형 마을만들기 실천전략 연구

과거 하드웨어 중심의 하향식 농촌개발사업을 개선하고자 2000년대부터 소프트웨어 중심의 사업을 지향하였고, 지자체 주도의 마을만들기가 행해졌다. 하지만 지금까지의 마을만들기 사업들 역시 외형적으로는 상향식 개발구조를 보이지만, 실제적으로는 행정기관의 관여 아래 추진되는 하향식 추진절차를 벗어나지 못하고 있는 실정이다. 본 연구는 현재의 마을만들기 진행과정에서 한 단계 더 나아간 상향식 개발방식을 효과적으로 반영하기 위해 수행되었으며, 여러 사람이 같은 자격으로 모여 마을만들기에 참여할 수 있도록 '협업형 마을만들기'를 제시한다. 연구대상지는 거창군을 대상으로 하였다. 행정 관련 공무원과 1:1 인터뷰를 통해 현재 거창군 마을만들기의 현황 및 실태분석을 알아보고, 이장단 설문조사와 일반주민 심층면담을 통해 마을만들기에 대한 주민 인식을 선행조사하였다. 이를 바탕으로 관련 공무원, 전문가, 지역주민의 참석 하의 10회에 걸친 라운드테이블을 진행하여 거창군의 협업형 마을만들기 실천전략을 로컬푸드, 문화 복지, 귀농 귀촌, 마을개발, 도농교류의 5가지 핵심분야를 선정하였다. 또한, 이는 행정의 지속적인 협업체계 구축과 주민의 참여역량 강화 노력, 전문가의 체계적인 통합운영관리 지원을 통해 이루어져야 한다고 판단하였다. 이로서 거창군만의 협업형 마을만들기 실천전략을 모색하였으며, 향후 각 농촌지역에서 상향식 마을만들기를 진행하고 도입할 수 있기를 기대한다. Prior hardware-centered rural development projects implemented top-down rural community regeneration via the local government in accordance with central government agency policies. To improve this, software-centered projects have been promoted since 2000. With central agency-led rural development projects changing into local government-led ones, rural community regeneration has been built per village. Although rural community regeneration projects appear to have implemented a bottom-up development currently, the top-down development procedures being facilitated by the intervention of administrative institutions have not disappeared. In this regard, the purpose of this research thesis is to effectively perform bottom-up development methods that go one step further from the current process of rural community regeneration. As the research site, this thesis selected Geochang, which has difficulties in being steadily maintained and operated despite the development of various rural community regeneration projects. Subsequently, it determined the current status and substantial analysis of a project of the rural community regeneration in Geochang through 1:1 interviews with civil servants in charge of administration as well as conducted a prior study on rural resident awareness of rural community regeneration through a survey of village head members and in-depth interviews with rural residents. Based on these data, a 10 times-round table conference was held under the participation of pertinent civil servants, professionals and rural residents to select practical strategies for cooperative rural community regeneration in Geochang as five key areas: local food, culture & welfare, rural villages, community development, and urban and rural interchanges. In addition, it is considered that the project of building villages must be implemented by establishing steadfast administrative co-operation systems, strengthening rural residents' participation capacities and supporting professionals' systemic integrated operation and maintenance. By doing so, this research thesis sought to determine practical strategies in the cooperative rural community regeneration in Geochang. It is expected that bottom-up development rural community regeneration will be built and introduced in each rural community in the future.