Fair project governance: An organisational justice approach to project governance

Project governance is traditionally associated with aspects such as directing, controlling or holding to account. However, the good governance principle of fairness has long been neglected. This paper investigates project governance through the theoretical lens of organisational justice, which is concerned with the perception of fairness in the working environment and theoretically introduces the concept of fair project governance. A single holistic case study provides in-depth insights into the lived experience of participants through a phenomenological analysis. Features of fairness in project governance which are aligned to the dimensions of organisational justice (interactions, distribution of resources and decision process) are identified and a four-step approach to implement and sustain fair project governance is developed: establishment, development, demonstration and reciprocation.     

Collaborative metropolitan governance: An evaluation of local adoption in Denver

In response to regional challenges, U.S. Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) have undertaken collaborative visioning processes that encourage development in centers with mixed use and higher density development. For over two decades, the Denver region has promoted local voluntary adoption of centers through regional plans supported by a significant investment in transit. But are these regional efforts affecting local comprehensive plans? We analyzed the content of city plans for ten cities over 30 years. We also interviewed 13 planners in the region to understand the factors supporting and constraining local adoption and implementation of centers. We found that local governments have adopted centers; and, over time these centers have integrated more regional vision objectives. Transit investment and market forces significantly influence local adoption of centers. Other supporting and constraining influences include redevelopment investment, sales tax, grants, and incentives, and public and political support. Our findings suggest that local development is still strongly driven by local views and attitudes, and future regional plans need to create more significant incentives, clearer standards, and public and political deliberations about how the region will accommodate future growth.     

Life cycle of buildings,demolition and recycling potential: A case study in Turin,Italy

One of the most challenging issues presently facing policymakers and public administrators in Italy concerns what to do with waste materials from building dismantling activities and to understand whether, and to what extent, the ever-increasing quantity of demolition waste can replace virgin materials. The paper presents the results from a research programme that was focused on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of a residential building, located in Turin, which was demolished in 2004 by controlled blasting. A detailed LCA model was set-up, based on field measured data from an urban area under demolition and re-design, paying attention to the end-of-life phase and supplying actual data on demolition and rubble recycling. The results have demonstrated that, while building waste recycling is economically feasible and profitable, it is also sustainable from the energetic and environmental point of view. Compared to the environmental burdens associated with the materials embodied in the building shell, the recycling potential is 29% and 18% in terms of life cycle energy and greenhouse emissions, respectively. The recycling potential of the main building materials was made available in order to address future demolition projects and supply basic knowledge in the design for dismantling field.     

Integrating water and agricultural management: Collaborative governance for a complex policy problem

This paper examines governance requirements for integrating water and agricultural management (IWAM). The institutional arrangements for the agriculture and water sectors are complex and multi-dimensional, and integration cannot therefore be achieved through a simplistic ‘additive’ policy process. Effective integration requires the development of a new collaborative approach to governance that is designed to cope with scale dependencies and interactions, uncertainty and contested knowledge, and interdependency among diverse and unequal interests. When combined with interdisciplinary research, collaborative governance provides a viable normative model because of its emphasis on reciprocity, relationships, learning and creativity. Ultimately, such an approach could lead to the sorts of system adaptations and transformations that are required for IWAM.     

State-led metropolitan governance in China: Making integrated city regions

Scholars have widely discussed the issue of how to govern rapidly growing metropolitan regions under the economic, social and political pressures of globalization. Many have argued for a metropolitan governance approach that involves less government regulation and more flexible arrangements between public and civic sectors. However, in countries like China, where a traditionally centralized state controls most resources and seeks to impose its vision for metropolitan development, a strong state-led approach is widely adopted. This article analyzes such a state-led model in China and identifies the economic and political factors that contribute to such development. It is suggested that metropolitan governance in China has formed a strong top-down, “dirigiste type” model to achieve state objectives. Findings are drawn from field observation, archival research and socio-economic data analysis in the Guangzhou–Foshan metropolitan region of the Pearl River Delta region in China.     

Internal governance and member investment behavior in energy cooperatives: An experimental approach

Cooperatives may become increasingly important as suppliers of electricity from renewable resources. Numerous governance models exist for establishing a renewable energy cooperative. Since members self-select into the organization, causal links between methods of internal governance and member characteristics are difficult to identify. We demonstrate how economic experiments can address this problem. In a simple social-dilemma game, we study the impact of heterogeneity in wealth on investment in a jointly owned enterprise under two different governance models. We do not find that member heterogeneity or governance model affect investment levels. A participant's endowment appears to be the most important factor explaining variation in investment. Good knowledge of cooperative governance has a positive impact on investment in the game and good knowledge of game theory has a negative impact on investment in the game. Future research should investigate the effect of the distribution of control rights on the performance of cooperative enterprises.     

The transformation of regional governance in China: The rescaling of statehood

Urban entrepreneurialism and intensive inter-city competition prevail in post-reform China, which has been extensively documented in the literature. However, decentralization is not the only characterisation of China's changing central–local relationship since 1978. Since the 2000s, economic development and agglomeration in China have created more scope of and need for collaboration. Regional collaboration is valued and driven by both central and local government. The aim of this research is to present various types of ‘regionalisation’ initiatives and examine the development of regional governance in China. It is found that there are two main actors leading the current regional practices, that is, the central government (the top-down mechanism) and local government (the bottom-up mechanism). Nevertheless, in terms of institutional arrangement, there has been no formal regional institution or informal regional coalition for either of the mechanism thus far. Moreover, both bottom-up and top-down regional governance initiatives lack substantial participation and multilateral negotiation between cities. There are essentially two different readings of the rationale of regional governance. While the bottom-up collaborative development is envisioned by the local entrepreneurial government to use regional competitiveness to promote local development, the top-down national and regional agenda is used by the central government to tackle discretionary local development. Therefore, the emerging regional governance in China is hybrid and complicated. With reference to the Western theoretical perspectives of state spatiality, state rescaling and politics of scale, this study argues that the emerging regional practices in contemporary China represent another round of changing statehood after governance downscaling to the urban level. This is in response to the territorial problems such as administrative fragmentation and excessive competition caused by earlier decentralisation and localism. It is held that, however, the state rescaling process is not a straightforward process but ridden with conflicts and tensions. Different actors at different spatial levels are articulating their vested interests at the regional scale. The building of regional governance is hence contested by complex inter-governmental politics, especially the division of central–local power and responsibility.     

Housing activism in urban China: the quest for autonomy in neighbourhood governance

Abstract

The creation of a neoliberal housing regime triggered extensive housing activism during the last decade by middle class homeowners who were protecting their rights to their neighbourhood. Yet such actions also signify the quest for autonomy from the ubiquitous control of the local state as the vanguard of political power hegemony at the grassroots level. Yet there is evidence of an escalation in “non-peaceful” actions in the richest cities in China despite the tight control of the authoritarian state. With data taken from official documents and interviews as well as from news reports about neighbourhood disputes in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, this article gives an analytic account of the disputes and actions of homeowners in residential neighbourhoods while making their claims as well as on the strategies used by the local state in controlling the homeowners' associations. The article is able to enrich our understanding of housing activism in a non-democratic regime.     

Ambivalence in place attachment: the lived experiences of residents in danwei communities facing demolition in Shenyang,China

Abstract

This article focuses on the influence of state-led urban redevelopment on the place attachment of deprived and old homeowners living in danwei communities that are facing demolition in Shenyang, China. It investigates lived experiences through in-depth interviews with homeowners in the context of the pre-demolition phase, i.e. an inevitable prospect of having to move out. The article reveals how these homeowners cleverly mobilize local resources, such as strong social bonds, low living costs, flexibility on space use and good neighbourhood location to cope with their life constraints, which is translated into their strong neighbourhood attachment. However, various forms of neighbourhood decline have decreased their quality of life. Meanwhile, they soon have to move due to the impending demolition of their neighbourhood. State-led urban redevelopment, therefore, confronts those deprived residents with a dilemma concerning their strong neighbourhood dependence and their desire for better living conditions. The impending neighbourhood demolition uncovers accumulated social issues in danwei communities in the context of market reforms and institutional changes in current China, such as the emergence of deprived social groups and their struggles for better housing.     

From stigma to demolition: Australian debates about housing and social exclusion

Although the concept of social exclusion is well established in the UK and wider Europe, as an alternative to the use of poverty and inequality, it only recently entered Australian housing and urban policy debates. This paper explores the dominant debates that emerged about housing and inequality in two major reports, which investigated future options for East Fairfield (Villawood) public housing estate in New South Wales prior to its demolition. In conceptualising the debates, the analysis draws on the framework devised by Watt and Jacobs (2000, Housing, theory and society, 17(1), 14–26), which identified three different discourses of social exclusion in British housing and urban policy. It is concluded that the dominant debate at East Fairfield estate drew extensively on a moral underclass discourse that implicated public housing tenure as a major cause of inequality. Whilst there is little doubt that serious problems existed on the estate, questions are raised about the utility of this moral underclass depiction and the rationale it provided for adopting demolition as the definitive solution. The experience of East Fairfield demonstrates that demolition is not a low-cost solution in financial or social terms.     

Contested urban streets: Place,traffic and governance conflicts of potential activity corridors

Activity Corridors have emerged as one redevelopment form for accommodating growth within dispersed, car-centric cities. This has seen a new interest in the form and function of urban arterial roads. Efforts to increase development intensity in established suburbia, however, are often highly contentious among local stakeholders. It is unclear whether the offer of improved public transportation infrastructure - a central component of the Activity Corridor concept - influences residents' support for taller or denser built form. This dynamic was explored using a case study along an urban arterial road in Perth, Western Australia. A household survey identified residents' attitudes to increasing development intensity in exchange for varying public transport provision scenarios. The results informed interpretive interviews with planning practitioners. Residents were more supportive of increasing development intensity if public transport was improved. Planners questioned whether recent land use and transport planning approaches adequately reflected community expectations for local “amenity”, and noted several key governance constraints to developing urban Activity Corridors.     

建设项目治理：从外生到内生

治理内生化是建设项目理论创新的内在需求,也是建筑业制度创新的前提条件。从范式转换的角度讨论建设项目的治理内生化问题。提出了形式化分析的（1＋3）C模型,分析了项目内生化的技术路径。治理内生化,需要改变基本假设和定义,以保证范式转换的彻底性;需要将项目治理分解为垂直治理和水平治理两部分,以保证形式化分析的可操作性。为了保证质量和效率,需要从建设项目特殊性出发,在公司治理研究成果的基础上建立新的研究平台。     

A new governance approach for multi-firm projects: Lessons from Olkiluoto 3 and Flamanville 3 nuclear power plant projects

We analyze governance in two contemporary nuclear power plant projects: Olkiluoto 3 (Finland) and Flamanville 3 (France). We suggest that in the governance of large multi-firm projects, any of the prevalent governance approaches that rely on market, hierarchy, or hybrid forms, is not adequate as such. This paper opens up avenues towards a novel theory of governance in large projects by adopting a project network view with multiple networked firms within a single project, and by simultaneously going beyond organizational forms that cut across the traditional firm-market dichotomy. Our analysis suggests four changes in the prevailing perspective towards the governance of large projects. First, there should be a shift from viewing multi-firm projects as hierarchical contract organizations to viewing them as supply networks characterized by a complex and networked organizational structure. Second, there should be a shift in the emphasis of the predominant modes of governance, market and hierarchy towards novel governance approaches that emphasize network-level mechanisms such as self-regulation within the project. Third, there should be a shift from viewing projects as temporary endeavors to viewing projects as short-term events or episodes embedded in the long-term sphere of shared history and expected future activities among the involved actors. Fourth, there should be a shift from the prevailing narrow view of a hierarchical project management system towards an open system view of managing in complex and challenging institutional environments.     

Urban village demolition,migrant workers' rental costs and housing choices: Evidence from Hangzhou,China

Many cities in China are undergoing large-scale demolition of urban villages. The difficulty of finding suitable housing for migrant workers has caused widespread concern because the lack of proper housing may lead to the outflow of migrant workers that would affect the normal operation of the city. Based on data collected by questionnaire survey in Hangzhou and a multivariate logistic model, this study analyzed the influence of housing demolition on the housing choices of migrant workers. We found that nearly a third (29.2%) of migrant workers spend >30% of their income on rent, and 14.1% of migrant workers plan to return to rural areas. This means that migrant workers face significant housing pressure and some migrant worker outflow from the city exists. Further empirical analysis corroborates that nine variables—including gender, age, education, marriage, occupation, RIR, RRS, HCW, and CMW—have a significant impact on migrant worker housing choices. Based on the results of multivariate logistic regression analysis, we recommend that the government expand the coverage of public rental housing, build temporary low-rent housing, stimulate businesses to provide housing subsidies to their workers, improve the educational conditions for migrant children, and intensively develop long-term, low-income rental apartments.     

FORCE-SOLVER: A knowledge-based approach to teaching statics

This paper presents a review of the development of an expert system designed to assist in the teaching of statics. The system is intended to emulate manual solution methods for a range of problems typically used in introductory courses in structural mechanics. It provides the functionality of an expert tutor by offering advice as the student-users work their way through the problem as well as validating methods and results. FORCE-SOLVER has been developed for use on IBM-compatible micro-computers and demonstrates some of the necessary features required to make such an expert system easily used. The paper describes the various elements of the program, including the necessary problem-solving strategies.intended to capture the ‘expert’ knowledge necessary to determine efficient solution strategies.     

The influence of governance on the implementation of Public-Private Partnerships in the United Kingdom and China: A systematic comparison

Although Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been widely implemented in a number of countries, their development and governance contexts are different. This research investigates PPPs through the lens of governmentality and develops a systematic and innovative analytical framework to evaluate and compare the PPP governance in China and the United Kingdom. Based on the findings, a conceptual model is proposed to illustrate the conducting of PPP governance, by the governments involved. The research contributes to the literature on the governance of PPP by providing a clear framework and an assessment tool. The result can benefit the policymakers in different countries, in assessing and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their PPP governance in practice, hence helping the decision-making of government in identifying and targeting loopholes in their PPP market.