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This study focused on the roles that community integration and community-boundedness (the relevance of a topic for a specific community) play on knowledge gaps. Given the extensive evidence linking media exposure with community ties, the authors hypothesized that ties with the local community could potentially mitigate local public affairs knowledge gaps. They also examined if the relevance of a topic to a subgroup would lead to lower knowledge gaps. A survey of 661 residents of Franklin County, Ohio, showed that whereas community ties were unrelated to knowledge, community-boundedness could be an important determinant of knowledge gaps on local public affairs. Additional analysis of the data also suggests that length of association with the community could be a potentially important contingent condition in the amelioration of knowledge gaps. The authors argue that their findings extend traditional findings of knowledge gaps that apply to geographically defined communities to studying "communities without propinquity."

Some argue that, as place-bound, development-oriented entities dependent upon capital, community development corporations (CDCs) are ineffective political agents beyond the boundaries of the disadvantaged neighborhoods they serve. In response I ask: how have CDCs worked through policy networks to rescale the 'spaces of engagement' for community development policy beyond the local? Data gathered through document analysis, a survey, and interviews point to three distinct phases of the CDC rescaling project: (1) linking the local through a national network; (2) expanding spaces of engagement through state policy networks; and (3) a national network of networks. CDC policy networks have had uneven success in establishing their legitimacy, proving CDC effectiveness as agents of local economic development, overcoming 'militant particularisms', and mobilizing both the state and capital. CDCs can expand their spaces of engagement beyond the local through policy networks if they successfully develop boundary-spanning relations, defend their place-based agenda, combat essentialization through performance measurement, strengthen their state networks, and reimagine their national rescaling project.

European society, with its steadily increased welfare levels, is not only concerned about food (safety, prices), but also on other aspects such as biodiversity loss, landscape degradation, pollution of water, soil and atmosphere. To a large extent these concerns can be translated into a wider concept named sustainable development defined as a normative concept by Morgan and Sonnino (2008). Sustainability in the food chain means approaching a new emerging vision of a sustainable agro-food system introducing an institutional dimension to take into account. Among different attempts to conjugate such concepts, there is one that is taking place in many Regions of Italy. In the last years spontaneous aggregations of consumers are developing. They are named Solidarity Purchase Group (SPG). In short, they are characterized by an economy, not necessarily local, ethical and equitable, where social and economic territorial relations tend to develop districts and networks. One of the main characteristics of a SPG is the direct relations between small farms, and their customers with a high content of participation and specialization. The study means to tackle issues related to organizational frameworks, at farm and chain level, and to assess those elements that mark consumer's choices and satisfaction.

The contextual nature of management approaches is important for understanding administrative centrality in governance networks in the public values process. This is of particular concern in a policy domain such as community development, which is characterized by the extensive involvement of nongovernmental actors in determining what ought to be done as well as carrying out those objectives. Using qualitative data, I explore the management approaches and policy tools used to fulfill Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) objectives in two different management contexts to analyze administrative centrality in governance networks in the public values process. Two different approaches emerge, suggesting different administrative trajectories to public values authorization and creation. Furthermore, the findings suggest that administrative centrality in the public values process may be influenced by the management context in which local agencies are embedded.

How do consumers and farmers organize credence food transactions? This paper discusses this issue through the concept of Food Community Network (FCN). A FCN is defined as an organization where consumers and farmers integrate their goals organizing a network. FCN is based on pooling specific resources and using membership-based contracts, to assign decision and property rights. It implies an organization based on a combination of several democratic and communitarian elements, with few market-like and bureaucratic ones. Based on those concepts this paper proposes a research to analyse the FCN governance mechanisms. Real case studies collected through an internet-based investigation on Community Supported Agriculture in North America have been found. Applying (i) new institutional economics and (ii) organizational science arguments, the case studies were used to determine features that are useful to describe how FCN governance works. On one hand we used (i) new institutional economics based features such as pooling resources and contracting; (ii) on the other hand market-like, bureaucratic, communitarian and democratic elements represent the organizational science approach. The results indicate a great variety of FCN organizational forms emerging in North America.

In the municipal law of Argentine and europe there is a confucion very idespread between "municipality" and "local community". This confucion has brought as a result that the local community has stopped to be seeing as it really is: something natural like families and other kinds of human groups with own life, as a biological entity, in sum as an organic-natural group with a self power quota for own government and to solve it´s own problems and needs.This situacion has a directly connected relation with the municipal extension of territory and it is a common topic for the municipal doctrine.But the fact that the provinces of "Mendoza", "Buenos Aires" and "La Rioja" adopt in their constitutions the Departmental-Municipal system prevents to their local communities the exercise of their autonomy in relation to their own municipal system and with all type of national and international governmental level.This system of dependency is contrary to de advance and development of each local community because to solve their problems each community depends on the decisions adopted by the single municipal government, that centralize the promulgation and application of legal norms for the entire municipal department. ; En el derecho municipal argentino y europeo hay una confusión muy difundida entre los términos "municipio" y "comunidad local". Esta confusión ha traído como consecuencia que se deje de ver a la comunidad local como lo que realmente es: algo natural, un conjunto de personas, familias y grupos humanos con vida propia, como una entidad biológica, en suma, como un conjuntoorgánico-natural con una cuota de poder propio para autogobernarse y resolver sus problemas y necesidades.Esta situación tiene directa relación con el problema de la extensión territorial de los municipios y es un tema recurrentemente abordado por la doctrina municipalista. Es que el municipio se debería corresponder con ese concreto grupo humano asentado en un concreto territorio.Pero el hecho de que las provincias de Mendoza, Buenos Aires y La ...

Preceded by an unnumbered issue dated Nov. 1979. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; Continues: Illinois. Dept. of Local Government Affairs. LGA reports.