Governance

Social capital has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years, however debate continues over the concept in policy and community renewal strategies. This paper explores how different interpretations of the concept may affect the role that government is perceived to have in developing 'social capital'. Empirical research findings are used to ex ....

One of the most important objectives of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) is to support informed debate on key policy issues. We recognise that many councils and other local government organisations are not always able to undertake sufficient background research to underpin and develop sound, evidence-based po ....

A systems framework has been developed to understand the performance of regional natural resource management (NRM). The framework recognises that regional bodies move through three key life cycle stages: foundation, NRM plan development and NRM plan implementation. The performance of regional bodies has been defined in terms of man ....

This chapter explores the role of innovation in responding to the challenges of Australian food security, both in the domestic and global contexts. The chapter explores the challenge to meet increased food demand through innovative production, as well as how best to manage distribution and supply chains. It acknowledges that regional communities ....

Commonwealth politicians are increasingly presenting the concept of localism as the panacea to all our wicked problems yet there remains considerable puzzlement across levels of government as to what it really means in practice. Indeed a recent survey of Commonwealth departments and agencies identified several approaches to localism coexisting in ....

The SASP Audit Committee has released a public Progress Report every two years since 2006. These Progress Reports aim to identify targets where progress is on track, and areas where more effort or new approaches are needed Report LocationClick here to view the full publication ....

Debates about urban growth and change often center on specialization.However, arguments linking specialization to metropolitan economic development contain diverse, and sometimes conflicting, claims. Is it better to be highly specialized or diversified? Does specialization refer to the absolute scale of an activity in a region, its share within t ....

This dissertation examines state-society relationships in Turkey through the lens of efforts to promote sustainable development at the local level. To this end, it first lays out a theoretical framework to analyze the political economy of local sustainable development, for which purpose the Gramscian state theory and its applications to ....

The theme of the 2002-03 State of the Regions report is regional economic governance and along with the traditional update of the regional performance indicators, the Report focuses on governance and the linked issue of growing inequality between regions. This growing inequality is the result of the process commonly referred to as 'globalisation' ....

This publication contains three papers: The first paper, by Professor Paul Lawless of Sheffield Hallam University, looks at the impact of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme. The programme evaluation has shown more signs of positive change in relation to place outcomes (community, crime, and housing and the physical environment), than p ....

This submission has been prepared by researchers from the Home Internet for Remote Communities Project (HIP). HIP is a collaborative project between the Centre for Appropriate Technology, Central Land Council and CCI @ Swinburne University that aims to investigate the feasibility of home-based computing and internet access in three small remote c ....

This Sustainable Population Strategy outlines the Government's framework for a sustainable Australia. It will help to ensure that future population change is compatible with the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of Australia. The Strategy recognises that population change is not only about the growth and overall size of our population ....

Local government in Australia ought to be aware of specific community needs and goals, and be willing to initiate and facilitate practices that will encourage cooperation and interaction within communities and between communities, service providers and all levels of government. Social capital theory is discussed as a technique that ....

In many Indigenous territories, continuing processes of primitive accumulation driven by governments' claims to resources and territory simultaneously deny Indigenous rights and insist on market forces as the foundation for economic and social futures in Indigenous domains. Drawing on research in North Australia, this paper identifies the erasure ....