Suchergebnisse

Samenvatting
De manier waarop vakliteratuur wordt gebruikt in kwalitatief onderzoek, alsmede het tijdstip waarop, zijn fundamentele onderzoeksdilemma's.De gefundeerde theoriebenadering staat kritisch tegenover het gebruik van vakliteratuur.Het gebruik van vakliteratuur brengt gevaren met zich mee, onder andere omdat de onderzoeker zich alleen zou kunnen richten op die zaken waarvan hij uit de literatuur heeft begrepen dat ze relevant zijn.Bestaande vakliteratuur gebruiken brengt ook kansen met zich mee. Het helpt bijvoorbeeld het onderzoek richting te geven door handvatten te bieden voor het ontwikkelen van de voorlopige vraag en het verschaffen van conceptuele helderheid.De keuze voor het wel of niet gebruiken van vakliteratuur en voor de manier waarop dient te worden bevraagd en geëxpliciteerd in zowel de onderzoeksopzet, het lopende onderzoek als het eindproduct.

In many European countries mayors are local political leaders. Dutch mayors, however, are neither local nor political, as national government appoints them. Their office is subject to serious changes. While it still carries a lot of 'natural' authority, its content has changed rather drastically. In this article we first of all give an overview of the mayoral office in Western Europe and sketch the Dutch mayorship. The next step is to discuss recent developments: councils gaining influence on the actual mayoral selection, mayors getting more legal capacities and responsibilities, and society demanding stronger (mayoral) leadership. We will explore the ways present mayors cope with the emerging tensions between these developments, and between the responses to them. The focus is on tensions between the various developments and the risks the mayorship runs.

In many European countries mayors are local political leaders. Dutch mayors, however, are neither local nor political, as national government appoints them. Their office is subject to serious changes. While it still carries a lot of 'natural' authority, its content has changed rather drastically. In this article, the researchers first of all give an overview of the mayoral office in Western Europe and sketch the Dutch mayorship. The next step is to discuss recent developments: councils gaining influence on the actual mayoral selection, mayors getting more legal capacities and responsibilities, and society demanding stronger leadership. They will explore the ways present mayors cope with the emerging tensions between these developments, and between the responses to them. The focus is on tensions between the various developments and the risks the mayorship runs. Adapted from the source document.

La mejora del gobierno se encuentra arraigada con frecuencia en los niveles descentralizados. En este artículo es el cambio dentro del gobierno mismo, principalmente la emergencia de la "gobernanza" y el cambio en el tamaño administrativo. Las reformas estructurales adoptan formas diversas: el aumento del tamaño para mejorar la capacidad del sistema, el aumento del tamaño para favorecer la participación ciudadana, y la reducción del tamaño para favorecer asimismo la participación ciudadana. Además, se advierten nuevas formas de acción dentro de los mismos gobiernos: cooperación transfronteriza, cooperación intermunicipal y nuevas formas de evaluación del rendimiento y de la gestión financiera. Los autores concluyen el artículo mencionando algunos desafíos para los académicos y para los gobiernos. ; Improvement in government is often rooted in decentralised layers of government. In this article the authors discuss the recent history of innovations in sub-national government in Europe. They focus on two general trends and developments. Cases of interesting practices and developments illustrate the general trends. For each general trend a distinction is made between two kinds of innovations: structural reforms and new ways of working within existing institutional settings. The first trend concerns changing relations between government, civil society and citizens, in response to the increased contestation of the nature of traditional representative democracy. Examples of structural reforms are: increased citizen participation, the expanded use of referenda and the introduction of the directly elected mayor. New ways of working are: forms of coproduction between the public sector and the third sector. The second trend described in this article is change within government itself, mainly the rise of 'governance' and changing administrative scales. Structural reforms take several forms: scale enlargement to enhance system capacity, scale reduction to enhance system capacity, scale enlargement to enhance citizen effectiveness, and scale reduction to enhance citizen effectiveness. Next to them, new ways of working can be observed within governments: cross-boarder co-operations, inter-municipal co-operations, and new forms of performance assessment and fiscal management. The authors conclude the article with a few challenges to both academics and governments.