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En Chine, comme dans de nombreux autres pays, l'urbanisme est considéré comme une fonction gouvernementale distincte, qui consiste à élaborer des plans stratégiques et d'aménagement du territoire pour le développement urbain. Au cours des dernières décennies, le processus d'urbanisation s'est intensifié, notamment dans les pays densément peuplés d'Asie. Les centres urbains se sont souvent développés plus vite que n'auraient jamais pu l'imaginer les urbanistes, ce qui a engendré une quantité énorme de problèmes urbains, tels que la congestion, les embouteillages, le manque d'infrastructures, les désagréments causés par les services et la pollution. En examinant la dynamique entre les modèles d'urbanisme et les questions et priorités de la politique d'aménagement urbain à Beijing, la méga-capitale chinoise, cet article démontre l'importance de considérer l'urbanisme comme une composante essentielle des politiques publiques et l'importance de s'efforcer de mieux intégrer l'aménagement et la gouvernance urbaine. La profession d'urbaniste elle-même doit également être revue afin de permettre l'apprentissage national et international, d'accueillir des planificateurs issus de disciplines différentes et d'utiliser des méthodes d'aménagement nouvelles et ouvertes. Ce n'est qu'ainsi que l'aménagement peut véritablement déboucher sur une formation urbaine d'une utilité durable, d'une beauté esthétique et d'une justice spatiale, capable d'offrir une expérience urbaine constamment renouvelée.

Urban planning in China, as well as in many other countries, is viewed as a distinctive governmental function, making strategic and land-use plans for urban development. In recent decades, the urbanization process has intensified, especially in densely populated countries in Asia. Urban centers have often grown faster than the planners' wildest imagination, creating an enormous amount of urban problems, such as congestion, traffic jams, infrastructure shortfalls, service inconveniences, and pollution. By reviewing the dynamics between urban planning models and urban development policy issues and priorities in Beijing, China's mega-capital city, this article demonstrates the importance of viewing urban planning as an essential component of public policy and the importance of striving for the better integration of planning and urban governance. The planning profession itself also needs to be innovated to enable domestic and international learning, to embrace planners with varying disciplinary backgrounds, and to use new and open planning methods. Only by so doing can planning truly lead to an urban formation of enduring utility, aesthetic beauty, and spatial justice that can offer a constantly refreshing urban experience.

Problem formulation is a critical step in the public policy process. Nonetheless, this importance is not listed in regular policy textbooks and is often overlooked. This study uses the case of sandstorm-combating in Minqin County, China, to illustrate the problem. Through statistical analysis of the data, the authors have demonstrated how policy formulation could be set on the wrong premise and lead to wrong policy consequences, particularly in the case of environmental issues for which full information is not readily available. In conclusion, the authors argue that conscientious attention to policy problem formation, careful empirical analysis, and collaborative participatory efforts are essential to ensure public policy success.

Purpose– This study aims to investigate scholars' roles in resolving environmental community conflict, as environmental community conflict is becoming an increasingly serious problem in contemporary China, and it explored the underlying factors and mechanisms that influence successful conflict resolution.Design/methodology/approach– Based on a combination of three types of sources – interviews, participant observation and existing literature, the study compared and contrasted 35 cases through a two-stage study project with 25 environmental community conflict cases in the first stage and ten non-environmental cases in the second.Findings– Results indicate that scholars serve seven roles in community conflict resolution: identification persons for potential sources of community conflict and supporters for the people who evaluate conflict problems before attempting to solve them; advisers for conflict protagonists; leaders of many knowledge-related activities; organizers of entrepreneurial activities for other community members; information brokers between community members and other stakeholders; representatives of the government, firms, community members and other stakeholders; and self-interested participants. While scholars' participation is important for resolving community conflict, their actions are often not effective. Successful community conflict resolution involving scholars must satisfy eight underlying factors: local scholars' sustained participation; high capacity; improvement on the organizational level of community members; emphasis on high efficiency knowledge and information transmission; effective finding and use of the community's social capital; continual optimization on their action strategies; obtainability of some benefits; and non-local scholars' sustained external support through social capital. The more closely these rules are followed, the more successful scholars' participation in community conflict resolution will be.Originality/value– The findings have practical implications for improving the effectiveness of scholars' participation in community conflict resolution in contemporary China and even in other countries.

This study examines federal employee attitudes since the passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. By reviewing seven employee surveys conducted by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management since 1979, we examine how attitudes have changed. We then analyze the degree to which organizational effectiveness, job satisfaction, and support for organizational change are affected by customer orientation, supervisory leadership, empowerment, teamwork, training and development, performance management, diversity, family-friendly policies, and labor relations. This study finds that (a) employee attitudes on most dimensions have been mildly positive; (b) employee attitudes somewhat reflect reform policies of each administration, presidential leadership, and environmental change; and (c) perceptions of organizational effectiveness, job satisfaction, and support for organizational change have been affected predominantly by customer orientation, supervisory leadership, empowerment, teamwork, performance evaluation fairness, and performance rewards. Finally, the study suggests that civil service reform integrate long-lasting strategies based on improved responsiveness and competitiveness of federal employees.

Using lessons and experiences from the city of Phoenix in information technology professional recruitment and retention, this article argues that in spite of public-sector constraints, local governments can and should become an employer of choice for technical professionals in this age of rapid change and technological progress. The article concludes that those who think and act strategically will more likely be the winners in the next technological rally.