Suchergebnisse

The city of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, has become an urban laboratory where numerous nationally prescribed regeneration partnerships and strategies have been "tried‐out" over the last 30 years. This paper unpacks the different and often contradictory spatial scales that such responses have taken, be they area‐based or city‐wide, as well as how "ways of doing" regeneration have been subsequently recast by this range of new partnerships, structures and processes. These developments have subsequently transformed the linkages between both central government and localities, and between local authorities and citizens, especially with regard to issues of trust‐based relationships. This paper will exemplify these changes by highlighting how the Government's flagship community‐centred regeneration partnership collided with an ambitious and far‐reaching local authority‐led city‐wide regeneration strategy. This paper concludes by discussing and how this has implications for managing regeneration partnerships per se in the current urban policy context.

Both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland governments recognise the current infrastructural deficits in their respective jurisdictions which, if not addressed, will undermine the future economic prosperity of both regions. This paper considers the adoption of a collaborative approach on the island to addressing the deficit, using public private partnerships (PPP) as the delivery vehicle. It presents a critical perspective of the challenges and opportunities posed by adopting such a cross‐border approach. Whilst PPPs have the potential to bring about North‐South co‐operation, bridge gaps in infrastructure capacity and facilitate the advancement of sectoral knowledge, their adoption on a cross border basis will require significant reorganisation and change at administrative and sectoral levels. This review concludes that governments and construction sector representatives in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have still some work to do in order to enhance the capability and readiness of public and private partners to evolve an all‐island PPP infrastructure development approach.

In 1999, the Irish Government launched a programme of public private partnerships (PPPs). The programme has expanded rapidly as policy makers seek to address the country's acute deficit of physical infrastructure. The first PPP to reach the stage of operation is the contract for five secondary schools. The early evidence from this case demonstrates that the market for education projects is competitive. The contract was designed on the basis of securing an appropriate distribution of risk and limiting private sector rents from re‐financing. However, the evidence indicates that this PPP has not resulted in significant innovations and the public sector has failed to provide any evidence of value for money.

The concept of public private partnerships (PPPs) has attracted worldwide attention and acquired a new resonance in the context of developing countries. PPPs are increasingly heralded as an innovative policy tool for remedying the lack of dynamism in traditional public service delivery. However PPPs have also become mired in a muddle of conceptual ambiguities. This paper sheds light on the PPP concept and the rationale for invoking private participation in developing countries. It also identifies critical success factors and policy requirements for successful PPP implementation. Finally, the paper presents a case study assessment of a post‐war PPP initiative in the Lebanese telecommunications sector and draws out lessons for improving the effectiveness and viability of PPP projects in the context of developing countries.

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the secularism debate currently taking place in France by examining how this issue impacts the integration of immigrants, particularly Muslim immigrants. Secularism is one of the key values of French Republicanism, but one which has been challenged by the establishment of a settled population of Muslim immigrants in France. The issue has been particularly highlighted by the affaire des foulards (headscarf affair), an ongoing debate over the rights of Muslim girls to wear a headscarf to secular French schools. Discussions of the principle of secularism and of its application have been even more intense in recent months with the publication in December 2003 of a report by the Stasi Commission, a commission set up by President Chirac to investigate the application of the principle of secularism, and by the passage of legislation intended to outlaw the wearing of any "overt" religious insignia in French schools. This article examines these recent developments in the context of the long‐running debate over Muslim women's right to wear a headscarf in French schools. It argues that the current focus on secularism provides evidence of the return of assimilation as a primary objective of public policy (Brubaker, 2001) and the decreasing strength of the movement in favour of the droit à la différence (right to difference). Finally, the paper argues that this has provided important obstacles to the integration of certain groups of immigrants, particularly Muslim immigrants.

ABSTRACTBetween 1967 and 1973, the indigenous people of the Indian Ocean's Chagos Archipelago were forcibly displaced from their homelands so the US Government could construct a strategic military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The people of Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos Archipelago now live in poverty in the island nations of Mauritius and Seychelles, nearly 2,000 kilometres from their homes. Analysing formerly classified government documents, this paper demonstrates how between the end of World War II and the final removals in 1973, the US Government planned, ordered, financed, helped orchestrate, and participated in the expulsion of the exiled people, known as Chagossians or Ilois. While some have detailed the role the British Government played in the removals, this paper clarifies how the US Government bears primary responsibility for the expulsion. Ultimately the creation of the base at Diego Garcia and the expulsion of the Chagossians reveal much about how the United States has exercised its political, economic, and military will on the world since World War II. The paper explains the significance of Diego Garcia and the expulsion of the Chagossians to post‐war US foreign relations, incorporating comparative analyses of other forced migrations caused by the construction of US military facilities, including those in the Marshall Islands; Thule, Greenland; Okinawa, Japan; and Vieques, Puerto Rico.

ABSTRACTUsing data from the 1995 Israeli Census of Population, this study examines the demographic, human capital, and labour force characteristics of the Ethiopian community in Israel and its determinants of employment. The results provide strong evidence for the overall disadvantaged socio‐economic status of the Ethiopian community and reveal substantial gaps in educational and occupational attainment between Ethiopian Israelis and members of other ethnic groups in Israeli society. Ethiopian Israelis have substantially lower levels of education, lower employment rates, and are more likely to have low‐skilled occupations. However, multivariate analyses show that the determinants of employment of Ethiopian Israelis are relatively similar to those of other ethnic groups. Education and veteran status are found to be especially important factors associated with increased odds of employment. Although the rates of return from education are lower among Israelis of Ethiopian origin compared to other ethnic groups, this study suggests that education constitutes the major avenue for upward mobility in the Ethiopian community. Nevertheless, considering their current disadvantaged position, the question of whether Ethiopian immigrants will manage in the long run to climb up the socio‐economic ladder and significantly improve their status, or whether they run the risk of becoming a marginalized ethnic group in Israeli society, remains a major concern. Implications for the formation of a new cleavage in Israeli society and the emergence of a stratification system based on race are discussed.