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Local climate change policy making in Japan started in the middle of the 1990s. The national government's Global Warming Law and the Kyoto Protocol Target Achievement Plan both include expectations that the 47 prefectural and 1,800 municipal governments will formulate and implement comprehensive, plan-based programs to address greenhouse gas emissions. This study examines national and local government climate change policies. Most local governments deal with disseminating information and educating citizens about climate change and energy efficiency. The most advanced local governments, such as Tokyo and Kyoto, have used local ordinances to claim competences in energy, traffic, and other policy areas in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The authors urge that a roadmap similar to the one they produced for Nagoya City to reduce its CO2 emissions by 75% compared to 1990 levels by 2050 be adopted at the national level.

In the CULTURAL-E project, four representative multifamily residential buildings will be built in Norway, France, Germany and Italy as Residential Energy Plus Buildings. Different policies and related boundary conditions in each country have a great influence on the successful implementation of plus energy concepts. The current deliverable "National and local regulatory frame and boundary conditions" gives an overview of the legislation and requirements in each country and shows how they impact the spread of PEB concepts, with the help of a practical example. Therefore, national funding schemes and local policies were analysed in regard to support renewable energy generation in buildings and favor the connection with the electric grid and other district buildings (e.g. direct delivery of power to neighbour buildings, grid feed-in) as well as the local energy market (e.g. energy prices, feed-in tariff) and foreseen developments and environmental aspects. The present report summarized the results of this analysis. The results will be also included in the European Climate and Cultural Atlas for Plus Energy Building design (2CAP-Energy Atlas).

Work Package 4: National Case Studies of Challenges to Tolerance in Political Life ; The ACCEPT PLURALISM project (2010-2013) is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities. (Call FP7-SSH-2009-A, Grant Agreement no: 243837). Coordinator: Prof. Anna Triandafyllidou, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.

Nowadays, the issue of rural development has a central place on the agenda of policy-makers, prompting a discussion on the instrumental and procedural options of public policies. This paper seeks to contribute to the reflection on the potentialities and limitations of promoting rural development based on innovative strategies sustained by territorial governance modalities, which entail an active involvement of local agents, especially local authorities. For this, it takes as case studies three public policy experiences led by local authorities within a Portuguese low-density region, with one of the lowest development rates among EU regions. Specifically, it aims to discuss: (a) the effectiveness of adopting innovative policies in the context of low-density rural areas; and (2) the role of territorial governance in the success of those policies. The research followed a document analysis and interviews with local development actors. The analysis suggests that peripheral rural areas are not condemned to human desertification. There is a wide spectrum of opportunities for these areas. They can bring together a strategic view of the future, and an institutional leadership capable of dynamizing an adjusted territorial governance model. This is the challenge currently facing rural development policy. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Research on mentoring and socialization in organizations determined that there are benefits to mentors, protégés, and organizations derived from these relationships (Burlew, 1991; Kram, 1983). However, previous research largely ignores mentoring and socialization at all levels of politics and political organizations and this study attempts to address this oversight. I pose questions about the extent to which women are mentored in local politics and political organizations. If they are being mentored, who is doing the mentoring? Are they being socialized into politics and political organizations and, if so, by whom? A total of nine women were interviewed and shared their experiences of mentoring and socialization in local politics. Interviewees ranged in age from the early 30s to the late 70s and from School Board to Mayor.

Research on mentoring and socialization in organizations determined that there are benefits to mentors, protégés, and organizations derived from these relationships (Burlew, 1991; Kram, 1983). However, previous research largely ignores mentoring and socialization at all levels of politics and political organizations and this study attempts to address this oversight. I pose questions about the extent to which women are mentored in local politics and political organizations. If they are being mentored, who is doing the mentoring? Are they being socialized into politics and political organizations and, if so, by whom? A total of nine women were interviewed and shared their experiences of mentoring and socialization in local politics. Interviewees ranged in age from the early 30s to the late 70s and from School Board to Mayor.

This book reviews how local social and employment policy fields react to the European Social Fund (ESF) to determine the role of the ESF in local activation policies. Drawing on both sociology and political science literature on welfare state reforms, the author examines what shapes local policy reactions to ESF and what effects these reactions have on change in local policy fields. Comparing data from 18 local case studies across 6 European countries, and deploying an innovative mixed-method approach, the book presents comparative evidence on everyday challenges in the context of the ESF and discusses how these findings are applicable to other funding schemes.

Building on a comparative study of the urban 'adaptations' of multiculturalism in eight European cities, this paper addresses four questions: 1) the changing relations between national and local immigrant policies; 2) the ways in which such policies are locally reshaped; 3) the involvement of civil society in the urban governance of immigration; 4) the advent, in some cases, of local policies of immigrant exclusion. Overall, local policies seem to have been less affected by the multiculturalist backlash than a commonsense understanding would entail; but they are in search of a new language. Diversity could be an answer to this issue.