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Designing Social Science Research
This book presents different research designs, their respective purposes and merits as well as their underlying assumptions. Research designs are characterised by a certain combination of knowledge aims and strategies for data production. An adequate design is the key to carrying out a successful research project. Nevertheless, the literature on design is scarce, compared to the literature on methods. This book clarifies the basic distinction between variable-oriented designs and case designs, and proceeds to integrated, comparative and intervention-oriented designs. A step-by-step guide to the design process and the choices to make is also included. The book's clear style makes it an excellent guide for master students and PhD students doing their first research exercises, while it is also useful for more experienced researchers who want to broaden their design repertoire and keep up to recent innovations in the field of research design.
Towards New Nordic Regions
Across the Nordic countries movements are taking place towards new political and administrative government structures at the regional level. The book presents an analysis of this development, in order to figure out both similarities and differences in the content of the reform and the reform process. At the same time the book also discusses how and to what extent new regions are growing from below. The overall aim of the book is to outline the broader implications of the Nordic experience for the understanding of the international trend towards the development of the new regions: What are the main elements in the top down reforms of regional governments? What is the content of regionalism processes related to each other? Are the state reforms mainly an answer to bottom up economic and social drives towards new regions? Are they rather motivated by ideas of a new regionalism which are spreading through Europe? Or are they maybe a result of a perceived need for more efficient service delivery at the regional level? By discussing these questions, the authors aim to contribute to the international discussion on new regions and regionalism.
Governance, Institutional Change and Regional Development
This title was first published in 2000: This volume addresses the prominent role given to institution-building, institutional change and governance in the regional development strategies and policies. The establishment of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies, and the arrival of regional development agencies in England highlighted the need to put the initiatives into some context, drawing on experience from across Europe on the critical factors in the determination of the potential and success of regions. Central to the discussions presented here by a group of European experts are the question of governance - how does an ongoing process of institution-building affect the ways in which regions and localities are governed, including questions of democracy, participation, regional self-determination, public-private partnerships, networks and accountability; and the consequences of new modes of governance and institutional change for regional development strategies and policies, particularly in the context of large-scale industrial restructuring and city-region and urban regeneration.
State and Civil Society in Northern Europe
In the current neo-liberal political and economic climate, it is often suggested that a large and strong state stands in opposition to an autonomous and vibrant civil society. However, the simultaneous presence in Sweden of both a famously large public sector and an unusually vital civil society poses an interesting and important theoretical challenge to these views with serious political and policy implications. Studies show that in a comparative context Sweden scores very highly when it comes to the strength and vitality of its civil society as well as social capital, as measured in terms of trust, lack of corruption, and membership of voluntary associations. The "Swedish Model," therefore, offers important insights into the dynamics of state and civil society relations, which go against current trends of undermining the importance of the welfare state, and presents autonomous civic participation as the only way forward.
Local Economic Development
Economic development incentives and practices have grown in importance as cities have tried aggressively to rebuild their economies. The different types of incentives provided on the local level range from low-cost loans for small business entrepreneurs to the use of property tax abatements to lure large plants to a community. The effectiveness of development incentives varies from city to city, as attested to by the examples in this volume of cities where incentives work to boost the economy and cities in which growth management practices have been instituted. Local Economic Development presents current research on local strategies implemented by cities in Britain, Canada, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. By comparing the approaches used in these countries, an international cast of contributors points to the politics, problems, and successes in creating and implementing effective local economic development policy.
Towards the Self-regulating Municipality
A comparative analysis of the free commune experiments carried out in Scandinavia during the 1980s. This text examines how, unlike traditional top-down approaches to reform, particularly central-local relations in the UK, free commune schemes allowed for bottom-up change and partnerships.
Regionalism Contested
As we move further into the 21st century, the prominence of regions can no longer be taken for granted. A certain skepticism has developed with regard to the feasibility of marginal regions achieving self-sustained growth and states have maintained their role as regulators of economic and social activities. Thus, the notion of the region and its significance is currently much debated and contested. Illustrated with a wide range of European case studies, this volume brings together the main strands of these contestations, as economic, political and social actors attempt to institutionalise their vision of their region as the dominant form of territorial governance. It questions both the external delimitation and the internal constitution of regions and critically analyses the societal processes circumscribing ways in which regions are created, maintained and undermined. The volume provides a wide range of analytical perspectives to enable an understanding of the current mosaic of regionalism in Europe.
Sociological Abstracts
CSA Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.
