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County-level administrative divisions and main functional areas are two basic governance systems that act concurrently on county-level geographical units. The administrative division governance focuses on local administration and regular social services, while the main functional area governance focuses on differentiated territorial space development. This paper summarizes the emerging trends and requirements of countylevel spatial governance in China and analyzes the coupling relationship of county-level administrative divisions and main functional areas. Then, the paper proposes to develop an interactive mechanism for the two systems, with administrative divisions focusing on local administration and social governance, and main functional areas focusing on strength complementation and differentiated development. In addition, it puts forward a new county-level spatial governance model featuring a coupling relationship of administrative and functional systems that is well matched with the coordination mechanism. It may provide a reference for improving administrative divisions, the main functional area policy system, and their dynamic adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological security is related to human well-being, is closely linked to a region's sustainable development, and is an essential cornerstone of any national security system. The Demonstration Zone of Green and Integrated Ecological Development (DZGIED) of the Yangtze River Delta is a critical point in implementing the integrated development strategy of the Yangtze River Delta. This paper used the Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework to evaluate the regional ecological security (RES) in the DZGIED based on multi-source remote sensing and GIS data. And the analysis was conducted from the overall and administrative division perspective. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2020, the ecological security of the DZGIED shows a slight decline overall. The RES decreased from 0.60 to 0.53. The RES level is kept above the critical security level and needs further improvement. (2) Significant differences in the RES across townships, with more pronounced changes in extreme values. The ecological security status of more than 80% of the townships shows solid positive spatial correlations. The ecological security of the DZGIED is more critical to the central area. (3) Human disturbance is the most important factor causing the decline in ecological security and the impact of environmental safety on the central area is more enormous. (4) The ecological security state of the DZGIED shows an improving trend, but it is still necessary to promote the construction of various demonstration projects. This paper aims to ensure the sustainable development of the DZGIED in the future and to provide guidance for policy formulation on ecological safety in the DZGIED from the perspective of administrative divisions. It also provides a reference for small-scale regional ecological safety evaluation studies such as townships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is the main driver of regional economic development. Exploring the spatial patterns of regional innovation can elucidate the regional differences in innovation development. Nearly all the researches on spatial patterns of innovation take the administrative divisions of provinces, cities and counties as spatial units, and portray the spatial patterns of regional innovation from the macroscopic overall, but lack the spatial patterns within the regions. This paper employed patents of Jiangsu province, China in 2019 as a sample, divided the spatial units based on geographic coordinates of patent data, calculated the technological innovation capability index of within the spatial units, overcoming the drawbacks of the research method that fails to reveal the internal pattern of cities by using provinces, cities and counties as the research scale, and analysed the spatial patterns of technological innovation capability in Jiangsu province by using spatial autocorrelation analysis and standard deviation ellipse. The results show that: (1) In terms of distribution, the spatial pattern of technological innovation capability in Jiangsu province is obviously "one core and one belt" in southern Jiangsu, with Nanjing as the core and Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou as a southeast-northwest belt of high innovation capacity, while multi-point scattered in northern Jiangsu. (2) From the perspective of aggregation mode, each city has the largest number of H-H agglomeration units, relatively presenting a zonal distribution in the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou area and Nanjing, and less distribution in other places. (3) Industrially speaking, the development of technological innovation capability of the secondary industry in many cities is better and centralized, while secondary and tertiary industries move hand in hand around the city centre in Nanjing, and the tertiary industry dominates comparably in Suzhou and Wuxi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on administrative sciences pioneers the navigation of complex governmental landscapes. Topics include demand for innovative approaches to public administration becomes increasingly evident; and guided the journal through periods of transition and growth, ensuring its continued relevance and impact in an ever-evolving academic landscape.

The European Administrative space (EAP) is consisted of many important principles which should be incorporated in the practice of each European Government, national or supranational. The goal of this paper will be to present and analyze the principles of openness and transparency, as two very fundamental segments of the EAP, which should be carried and fulfilled by all democratic governments, institutions and administrative structures, not only at the European continent, but even in the other parts of the world. Due to the character of the paper, the main research methods which will be used are descriptive method, content analysis method and comparative method. The expected results from this paper will be to detect the level of application of the principles of openness and transparency in Europe, to make comparative analysis, but also to suggest some measures for improvement of the situation in the implementation process of these principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Administrative Science / KözigazgatásTudomány is the property of Universitas-Gyor Nonprofit Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present paper studies and publishes, for the first time, 14 military medals exhibited at the National Museum of Dāgistān Republic in Makhachkala, Caucasus. These medals are of great importance since they recorded historical events with different details. Moreover, they denoted awardees with their roles in public political life, as well as beliefs and religious doctrines. Moreover, they showed the insights of the military strife between the Russians and Mountain peoples and the role of Islamic Jihad leaders under the leadership of Imām Šāmil (Šumwīl) to liberate Caucasus from the Russian occupation. Šāmil awarded his military leaders these medals as a sort of motivation and appreciation for their prominent active role in the war against the Russians. These military medals played a vital role in expressing the geography and administrative divisions of Caucasus. Additionally, some medals referred to the Mountain territory as “The greatest Dāgistān” (العظمي داغستان .)The present paper tackles the religious significance of medals concerning expressing the nature of the Jihad situation in Caucasus in the 13th AH./19th AD. century, as in some Jihad expressions, such as moḥyī as-Sunnah (Sunnah reviver) wa Qāmi’ al-Bid’ah (heresy suppressor); (البدعة وقامع- السنة محيي,) Adām Taʿālā Dawlatuh (May his state live longer); (دولته تعالي أدام .) Medals played the interactive role in combining the records of historical resources and the biographies of the nobles through referring to the names of some Islamic Jihadist leaders in Dāgistān. They played a significant role in illustrating some recorded statements, including titles, names, dates, events, and some poetic lines. They were also important role in highlighting the artistic and decorative aspects. While some of them showed special inscriptions of some weapons, spears and shields, others illustrated the signatures of many craftsmen following various Islamic artistic schools, confirming the super-ego of the Muslim craftsman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchical structures and organizational models highly affect the sustainable operation of the spatial network of tourism destinations. This paper adopted the modified tourism gravity model and social network analysis method to reveal the spatial characteristics of the tourism network on the Tibetan Plateau based on tourism flow data in 2019. The results are as follows: (1) the spatial organization of tourism flows was unbalanced, showing the characteristics of "high in the east and low in the west"; (2) The county tourism flow formed a multidimensional system of spatial hierarchy with Chengguan District of Lhasa, Golmud City, and Pengzhou City as the top nodes, the spatial polarization characteristics, and zonal distribution differences were evident; (3) The inter-county tourism linkage conformed to the law of distance decay, and the multiple network structure hierarchy features highlighted the complex linkage pattern; (4) The tourism network had a more distinctive dominant flow and was influenced by county-level administrative divisions; (5) The tourism linkage network formed eight subgroups with significant geographical characteristics. This study provides recommendations for optimizing the spatial structure of the Tibetan Plateau county tourism network for the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the regional economy, the metropolitan area has gradually shifted from the rapid development stage of concentrating on the central city to the stage of coordinated and integrated regional development. This trend has brought new development opportunities to the metropolitan fringe area; however, due to the differences in resource endowment and the complex relationship between different levels of government, the metropolitan fringe area inevitably has contradictions and imbalances in economic and social development. There has been extensive research on land use and urban governance in the metropolitan area, but less attention has been paid to the metropolitan fringe area, and it is difficult to quantitatively characterize the complex interactions between various forces in this area. This paper summarizes the spatial pattern and spatiotemporal characteristics of construction land use in the fringe area of Shenzhen metropolitan area based on the 30 m resolution land cover dataset from 2000 to 2020, and analyzes the driving factors affecting the changes of construction land use through logistic regression. The results show that the overall land use in the study area is shifting from cropland and forest land to urban and rural construction land. With different stages of development, the rate of land change varies greatly from one period to another. Three factors, population density, lighting index and distance to highway, have a significant correlation with the changes in built-up land across the region, while the boundary effects of administrative boundaries show some variation in the impact of urban land expansion at different economic levels. Finally, we put forward that reducing the negative impact of administrative divisions on the integration of resources in different cities is important for realizing the synergistic development of the Shenzhen metropolitan area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses, from the perspective of the political sociology of policy instruments, the adoption and re-contextualisation of School Autonomy with Accountability (SAWA) reforms in Spain, with a particular focus on the region of Madrid. Over the last few decades, Madrid has adopted a wide range of education policies that have contributed to consolidate a market-oriented approach in the governance of the educational system. This paper analyses the instrumentation and complex interaction between standardised tests, test-based accountability, school choice and school autonomy in advancing this governance shift. The main objective of the paper is twofold: first, to trace the policy trajectory of SAWA reforms in Spain and Madrid, and second, to identify the rationale of the reform and its related policy ontology in relation to the selection and articulation of different policy instruments as well as the governance implications of these choices. Methodologically, we have conducted a policy analysis case study, analysing data from a set of 35 original interviews with education policymakers and key policy actors, combined with document analysis. The results of our research show how the policy preferences of domestic political actors and the legacies of the politico-administrative regimes mediate the final form and uses of the SAWA policy instruments. These policy instruments can be conceptualised as 'life objects' whose development and uses are attached to context specific – and sometimes contradictory – political objectives and rationales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1990s public dispute resolution in Ireland has undergone significant reform. The paper examines external and internal pressures for the reform of conflict resolution in Ireland and reveals the key roles played by senior public servants and conflict management professionals in a system where politics and political divisions had little effect on the reform process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While institutions are said to be poor in China in cross-country comparison, recent research indicates that at the provincial level, institutional quality plays in fact an important role for the economic success of a province, municipality, or autonomous region in China. Our paper aims to add further arguments to this discussion by focusing on the concept of club convergence. In particular, we analyze whether institutional quality in low-income provincial level administrative divisions converges to the level experienced by relatively highly developed ones or whether there exist multiple institutional clubs over the period 1997–2007 by using the log t test proposed by Phillips and Sul (Econometrica 75(6):1771–1855, 2007). Our findings indicate that there exist multiple institutional clubs within China, three rather small clubs which follow an above-average high institutional quality path and two clubs which find themselves on a relatively low institutional quality path and which together account for the majority of provinces and autonomous regions. Using the same methodology, we find that various members of the poor institutional clubs are additionally caught in a low-income trap. In a next step, we analyze the causal relationship between poor institutional traps and low-income traps in China by using a recursive bivariate probit model. We find evidence that institutional traps are important determinants of income traps, giving rise to the recently identified phenomenon of a 'double trap'. Finally, our findings indicate that human capital and urbanization are additional important determinants of income traps, while globalization is decisive for avoiding poor institutional traps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[ Objective] The paper uses Geographic Information System (ArcGIS) as a platform to discuss the study of DEM data on the digital construction of rural landscape databases and the coupling relationship in geographic space of rural landscape. The aim is to further expand the coverage of China's land space digitization and provide practical theoretical basis and development possibility of quantitative planning for village level administrative zoning research. [Method] In this paper, Xiangyu Village, Junzhuang Town, Mentougou, West Beijing, is selected as the research object, and the document space database of the study area is constructed by building digital elevation model (DEM), ArcGIS stacked map weighting and visual interpretation methods. Moreover, its elevation equivalence, slope direction, and water flow direction are visually analyzed. [Result] The mountainous terrain and hydrological characteristics of Xiangyu Village are roughly consistent with the village layout; the living environment of Xiangyu Village is consistent with the terrain and texture, and it belongs to the rural landscape system of mountains, valleys and small watersheds. [ Conclusion] The results obtained through data visualization analysis are basically consistent with the traditional village planning pattern of Xiangyu Village; the rural landscape based on village level administrative divisions is still in the traditional planning stage, and there is great development space for village level geographic spatial survey. Therefore, it is necessary for relevant practitioners to make more contributions to fill the full coverage of China's land space digitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate variability induced increased frequency of disasters has affected the livelihood of the people especially in developing countries. Rural communities are more affected and vulnerable towards these events due to limited livelihood alternatives. The exponentially increasing population, unsustainable use of natural resources and increasing disparities in social structure have posed threats to rural livelihoods. Climate variability and change have adversely affected agriculture and allied activities but more so in mountainous regions where the agriculture is still primarily rain-fed and is practised by smallholder farmers. Thus, livelihood vulnerability assessment is essential for suggesting suitable adaptation strategies and making policy decisions. This paper makes an attempt to examine livelihood vulnerability using composite vulnerability index. Evidence is given from blocks (administrative divisions of the district) of Dimapur district of Nagaland in India. We constructed livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) by incorporating site-specific indicators for its three components (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity). The results revealed that all the blocks were greatly affected by climate variability and its induced drought. Niuland block was found the most vulnerable block followed by Kuhuboto, Dhansiripar and Medziphema blocks. Livelihood vulnerability in Niuland, Kuhuboto and Dhansiripar blocks is attributed to high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity. Sensitivity has predominantly increased livelihood vulnerability in Medziphema block. Thus, the study calls for policy implications to reduce the extent of livelihood vulnerability. LVI as a policy tool has proved to be effective in livelihood vulnerability assessment. Hence, it can successfully be utilised in other geographical regions for policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a research framework for investigating the travel patterns of dockless bike-sharing and accomplishing the large-scale bike rebalancing at the city level. A case study involving Shanghai combines GPS-based bike-sharing usage data and road network data. First, the spatiotemporal mobility patterns are analyzed visually; then community detection is used to divide the study area into management sub-areas according to the mobility characteristics of bike-sharing users; in addition, a clustering algorithm is used to identify virtual stations. On this basis, a heuristic algorithm is used to generate a rebalancing scheme that enables multiple visits to a given station. The results show that Shanghai can be divided into 28 bike-sharing management sub-areas. Static rebalancing based on the identified management sub-areas reduces the number and driving distance of rebalancing vehicles in use, which is a better outcome than that with a method based on administrative divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt to provide a procedure for the assessment of the efficiency of various regional systems for the purposes of spatial analysis is presented in this paper. Functional regions as well as approximated functional regions and the existing administrative regions in the Czech Republic are evaluated, as examples of regional systems to be compared and assessed. Functional regions and approximated functional regions are defined according to the adjusted third variant of the CURDS regionalisation algorithm, using the latest knowledge on the operation of the constraint function. The comparisons of individual regional systems are based on LISA maps and particularly on the assessment of regional variability, including the measures of internal homogeneity and external variability in the regional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the role of Mountbatten, as the last Viceroy of united India, in the partition of India and the division of Bengal and Punjab as well. Mountbatten forced Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to accept the division of Punjab and Bengal, the two largest Muslim-majority provinces of united India. Along with devising the 3rd June Plan for India's division he also constituted the Radcliffe Commission for demarcating the boundaries between India and Pakistan. There are two contradictory claims however, the dominant viewpoint is that Mountbatten changed the original boundary plan prepared by Radcliffe to appease Jawahar Lal Nehru and to punish Jinnah for not accepting him as the joint Governor-General of both India and Pakistan. In fact, this unjust Radcliffe Award sowed the seeds of the hitherto unresolved numerous issues including the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, which caused three wars between them. Therefore, it is important to review and revisit the perceptions about the Mountbatten's role regarding formation, working and final decisions of the Radcliffe Commission. With the passage of more than seventy years since India and Pakistan emerged on the scene as independent nations previously unavailable official documents such as Mountbatten Papers, Churchall Papers, Attlee Papers etc., are now available which can help us get a greater picture of Mountbatten's thoughts and actions about the Radcliffe Award. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper generally builds on the concept of justice in social science. It attempts to interpret this concept in a geographical and particularly in a spatial context. The paper uses the concept of accessibility to define the principle of spatial equity. The main objective of the paper is to propose an approach with which to assess the level of spatial equity in the administrative division of a territory. In order to fulfil this objective the paper theoretically discusses the concept of spatial equity and relates it to other relevant concepts, such as spatial efficiency. The paper proposes some measures of spatial equity and uses the territory of four Central European countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia) as example of the application of the proposed measures and the corroboration of the proposed approach. The analysis is based on the administrative division of four countries and is carried out at different hierarchical levels as defined by the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With the development of rural tourism, rural culture in China has suffered from development problems. Existing studies focus more on how to protect rural culture, ignoring the dynamic changes in rural culture. Therefore, cultural memory offers an important perspective to review the dynamic process of cultural changes. This paper uses the concept of cultural landscape to explore the changes in rural culture from the perspective of cultural memory. The research methods of historical data analysis and field investigation are used. The change process of the cultural landscape in Anzhen Village is explored. Firstly, the clan-style group life in the traditional human–land relationship is the germination of cultural memory. Secondly, typical Chongqing residential mansions become ways of spatial expression of the local cultural landscape. Thirdly, the group interpretation of the settlement landscape becomes the continuation of local memory. Fourthly, the migration of living settlements in the dual influence of modern transportation and administrative divisions is the deconstruction of local memory. Fifthly, the touristic reconstruction of the traditional cultural landscape is summarized as memory reconstruction. In addition, the factors affecting the changes in the cultural landscape are analyzed from both internal and external aspects. The discussion on the dynamic changes in the cultural landscape provides a theoretical and practical basis for the analysis, protection, and inheritance of rural culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates to what extent East Germans are represented in the German administrative elite. Based on an original dataset of 512 appointments of top civil servants (TCS) in the Eastern German Länder and Berlin between January 2000 and December 2019, it is investigated (1) whether the descriptive representation of East Germans increases over time and (2) how commonalities and differences between TCS with East or West German origin develop over time. The focus here is on their educational and career background as well as on party politicisation. Findings reveal a clear temporal effect: the descriptive representation of East Germans in top positions in the civil service increases over time. Still, East Germans remain highly under-represented in Eastern Germany's administrative elite. Another important finding is that TCS increasingly converge over time in terms of their educational and career background. A similar converging trend is observable with regard to party politicisation. These findings indicate a trend towards 'normalisation', i.e. an increasing adaptation to West German standards. This adaptation process, however, is taking longer than expected as the after-effects of the West German 'elite imports' in the early 1990s are enduring and profound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the British Election Surveys from 1979 to 2019, together with the 2016–2019 CSI Brexit online panel, to explore how nostalgia has changed over time. Our interpretation of the data is that there was a shift in the content of nostalgia from regret about the decline of traditional ways of life and family values toward regret over the rise of inequality and the emergence of social media. At the same time, we find continuity in the kinds of people who are likely to feel nostalgic: they tend to be members of older generations and to be less well educated (which we take as a proxy for being "left behind" culturally and economically). However, we also find that, on the items for which we have comparable time series—on immigration, same‐sex relations, ethnic equality, and gender equality—both age and educational level have reducing explanatory power over time. In contrast, for these items, there is a trend toward greater politicization and an increased influence of an English national identity. Political divisions show increasing explanatory power as sociodemographic divisions decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Oxford English Dictionary, the term 'Border' refers to a line separating two countries, administrative divisions, or other areas. Basically border-crossing refers to the state of crossing any boundary and it results in the intersection of two different cultures. Identity refers to the close similarity or affinity and acculturation refers to assimilation to a different culture, typically the dominant one. Crossing of a border of any system basically results in the crisis of identity and acculturation with other system directly or indirectly. Multicultural theorist James Banks refers to "multiple acculturation" as the incorporation of different heritages into the identity development process (Dorris, 239). Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy attributes a lot of instances regarding the issues of identity and acculturation. The protagonist Sissie is found travelling many places and hence through her encounter with those settled people from Africa we can get the description of how the lives of those Africans have changed in the European land. This paper is an attempt to root out the instances of identity and acculturation as a result of crossing the border of a nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New green activities in regions tend to build on regional capabilities. This paper makes a first attempt to test the impact of political support for environmental policy at the national and regional scales, besides regional capabilities, on the ability of 95 regions in seven European countries to diversify into new green technologies during the period 2000–12. Evidence is found that related capabilities rather than political support in a region are associated with green diversification of regions. However, while political support at the national scale tends to moderate the role of regional capabilities, political support at the regional scale strengthens it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social science and popular media have described political polarization as a threat to democracy and effective policy. Scholars connect right/left political divides to macro‐level social divisions, such as those between rural and urban residents, environmentalists and farmers, and pro‐versus anti‐government sentiments. While previous scholars have complicated these dichotomies, political polarization scholarship often seeks out evidence of polarization without considering these complications. In addition, we know little about how polarization is affecting community responses to social problems. This paper explores the rhetoric of political and social polarization as it appears in community responses to a particular social problem, the decline of small and mid‐sized dairy farms in southern Wisconsin. During interviews, farmers, municipal leaders, and community members indeed used polarizing rhetoric and identified polarization as a problem in their communities. We argue, though, that the connections between commonly bifurcated identities, including a common attachment to the land and relationships across the rural–urban continuum, are equally important. We conclude by encouraging policy responses meant to address the fallout of the loss of mid‐sized dairy farms to draw on these connections to avoid inadvertently reinforcing political divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social science and popular media have described political polarization as a threat to democracy and effective policy. Scholars connect right/left political divides to macro‐level social divisions, such as those between rural and urban residents, environmentalists and farmers, and pro‐versus anti‐government sentiments. While previous scholars have complicated these dichotomies, political polarization scholarship often seeks out evidence of polarization without considering these complications. In addition, we know little about how polarization is affecting community responses to social problems. This paper explores the rhetoric of political and social polarization as it appears in community responses to a particular social problem, the decline of small and mid‐sized dairy farms in southern Wisconsin. During interviews, farmers, municipal leaders, and community members indeed used polarizing rhetoric and identified polarization as a problem in their communities. We argue, though, that the connections between commonly bifurcated identities, including a common attachment to the land and relationships across the rural–urban continuum, are equally important. We conclude by encouraging policy responses meant to address the fallout of the loss of mid‐sized dairy farms to draw on these connections to avoid inadvertently reinforcing political divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disparity between total population values and how that population is spread across an area can generate issues of perception, as though choropleth maps are usually used to represent population, its density may not be equally spread across the territory. A prime example of this situation is Galicia in NW Spain, as it has the highest number of population settlements of the country with almost 50% of the total, and yet at the same time it has only around 4% of municipalities, which means that each local authority has on average dozens of borderless settlements within its limits. However, population maps of the region are normally produced at the municipal level, providing a poor representation of the demographic complexity of the area. Consequently, this paper provides an alternative way of displaying population density by using three submunicipal division levels obtained from official sources: census tracts, parishes and settlements. While census tracts and parishes have defined limits, settlements do not, so they are normally mapped by using punctual symbology. It is therefore necessary to generate some borders for those population entities which do not have them, as it can help understand how the population is distributed in more detail. In order to provide a suitable means of comparison with the other administrative divisions this paper presents a method to convert settlement data into polygons that includes the use of Voronoi tessellation, producing for the first time the most detailed population density choropleth map of the region at settlement level. Furthermore, the method can be applied anywhere in Spain and with non-census data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly outlines the actual situation of accounting reform of public finance. Nowadays, most countries use the accrual principle in various stages of development to ensure the reliability and accuracy of output data and improve the performance of public sector. The paper should identify some main problems in the implementation of accrual basis in accounting at the municipal level in the Czech Republic and compare with Slovak municipalities. Aim of the research is to present outcomes of analysis focused on currently discussed topics which are related to introducing the accrual principle into accounting of local government, especially small municipalities. First part of the paper summarize current situation, the second part discuss the benefits of accounting reform process and quality accounting information for public finance and performance measurements in this area. Finally the paper includes main findings from the questionnaire survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper picks up a theme from the recent literature on the councillor, that of time spent in meeting, and suggests that if we are to understand the role of the councillor we must understand the work the meeting does. The discussion is based in a series of empirical studies and uses interactionist precepts to identify and explore the dynamics of the informal encounter, the more formal meeting and its associated paperwork, and the special if ambiguous function of meetings about meetings. It draws on recent institutionalist theorising to describe how the routines and processes of meeting must be inhabited and enacted in practice, positioning them in Arendt's sense of politics as action and interaction. In concluding, it considers how future research might explore the ways that meetings are separated from the world to which they refer, and how different meetings and kinds of meeting are articulated one with another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Decyzje is the property of Decyzje and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Why have some territories performed better than others in the fight against COVID‐19? This paper uses a novel dataset on excess mortality, trust and political polarization for 165 European regions to explore the role of social and political divisions in the remarkable regional differences in excess mortality during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic. First, we investigate whether regions characterized by a low social and political trust witnessed a higher excess mortality. Second, we argue that it is not only levels, but also polarization in trust among citizens – in particular, between government supporters and non‐supporters – that matters for understanding why people in some regions have adopted more pro‐healthy behaviour. Third, we explore the partisan make‐up of regional parliaments and the relationship between political division – or what we refer to as 'uncooperative politics'. We hypothesize that the ideological positioning – in particular those that lean more populist – and ideological polarization among political parties is also linked to higher mortality. Accounting for a host of potential confounders, we find robust support that regions with lower levels of both social and political trust are associated with higher excess mortality, along with citizen polarization in institutional trust in some models. On the ideological make‐up of regional parliaments, we find that, ceteris paribus, those that lean more 'tan' on the 'GAL‐TAN' spectrum yielded higher excess mortality. Moreover, although we find limited evidence of elite polarization driving excess deaths on the left‐right or GAL‐TAN spectrums, partisan differences on the attitudes towards the European Union demonstrated significantly higher deaths, which we argue proxies for (anti)populism. Overall, we find that both lower citizen‐level trust and populist elite‐level ideological characteristics of regional parliaments are associated with higher excess mortality in European regions during the first wave of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the last in the series of three papers devoted to the estimated value of intellectual capital belonging to any socioeconomic area: voivodship (province), municipality, country, region etc. An idea of the estimated value is based on the assumption that the value of a given socioeconomic area for its residents is determined by income generated due to the presence of a business activity in a given area. The structure of the presented method allows for covering all components of intellectual capital within estimated value regardless whether their existence is realized or not. The paper, the third in the series, makes an approximate estimate of intellectual capital in individual voivodships in Poland for the year 2013. Therefore, it is possible to disclose significant quantitative and qualitative relationships , inter alia between intellectual capital and population of individual provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Whilst academic research can capture an existing sense of place, the act of placemaking through strategies such as events depends upon the attitudes and actions of precinct managers and event organisations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the collaborative research process between researchers and a precinct manager that highlighted an event’s ability to contribute to placemaking within that precinct.Design/methodology/approach Using the results of this event experience study, informal interviews with the SPA research partners, secondary data and a longitudinal, reflective account of the research collaboration, the research process itself was investigated to see how it assisted in the (re)design of the event within the precinct manager’s placemaking strategy to encourage a family-friendly, beach-centred culture within the precinct.Findings It is proposed that the research results combined with a collaborative research process itself facilitated a shift from the business imperative on the event’s economic performance indicators to a broader discussion of the event’s role in shaping local’s (and visitor’s) perceptions of place, and allowed a broader discussion of the role of events in driving a “liveability” and/or placemaking agenda, complementing the economic impact agenda, for the precinct manager.Practical implications The paper suggests how and why it is important for academics to work collaboratively with precinct managers to translate the concept of placemaking into the actual design of events within a place. To do so requires the researchers to bridge the gap between theory and practice. For the concept to be translated into action, greater attention was drawn to the placemaking role of events, positioning it along economic impact measures as a valuable outcome of events.Originality/value Few co-authored studies, representing both researchers and practitioners exist within the events sector, and this study contributes towards understanding process of research impact, by considering the forces capable of delivering a placemaking agenda through a precinct’s event portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partisanship is a powerful driver of economic perceptions. Yet we know less about whether other political divisions may lead to similar evaluative biases. In this paper, we explore how the salient divide between "Remainers" and "Leavers" in the UK in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum has given rise to biased economic perceptions. In line with the cognitive dissonance framework, we argue that salient non-partisan divisions can change economic perceptions by triggering processes of self- and in-group justification. Using both nationally-representative observational and experimental survey data, we demonstrate that the perceptions of the economy are shaped by the Brexit divide and that these biases are exacerbated when respondents are reminded of Brexit. These findings indicate that perceptual biases are not always rooted in partisanship, but can be triggered by other political divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional administrative area of Piraeus has long been a suitable case study for analyzing the impact of social housing. The six municipalities that constitute this urban agglomeration have been strongly connected with the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 and the consequent rehabilitation of the refugee population during the 30s. Moreover, after WWII, more social housing complexes had been constructed in the urban area around central Piraeus, representing different architectural types and principles. Today, they host various socio-economic population groups. Economic immigrants and households of elderly people are some of the vulnerable households that reside today in the social housing apartments. One major issue is the poor housing conditions and the low level of preservation associated with high rates of poverty and social exclusion. This paper attempts to depict the contemporary situation in the area by providing thematic cartography with the aim of indicating crucial enclaves in need of urban regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work on political divisions in the mass public has identified several manifestations of polarization linked to different types of attitudes, orientations, and behaviors. Of these, affective polarization and perceived polarization have attracted increasing attention, though we still know fairly little of the links between these variants of polarization. In this paper, we examine the association between affective and perceived polarization, with an aim toward disentangling any potential causal relationship between the two processes. Using two sets of nationally representative panel data from 1992 to 1996 and 2008 to 2009, we find evidence that affective polarization causes perceived polarization, and that perceived polarization is not related to future affective polarization. Stratifying the models by level of political information, we find that the strength and statistical significance of the relationships between past and future values of affective and perceived polarization are conditional on political sophistication: more sophisticated individuals exhibit stronger relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Devolution has become a key 'global trend' over recent decades as many states have decentralised power to sub-state governments. The UK resisted this trend until the late 1990s when devolution was enacted by the then Labour Government, taking a highly asymmetrical form in which different territories have been granted different powers and institutional arrangements. Devolution allows the devolved governments to develop policies that are tailored to the needs of their areas, encouraging policy divergence, although this is countered by pressures to ensure that devolved approaches do not contradict those of the central state, promoting convergence. This review paper aims to assess the unfolding dynamics of devolution and policy divergence in the UK, spanning different policy areas such as economic development, health and social policy. The paper emphasises that devolution has altered the institutional landscape of public policy in the UK, generating some high-profile examples of policy divergence, whilst also providing evidence of policy convergence. In addition, the passage of time underlines the nature of UK devolution as an unfolding process. Its underlying asymmetries have become more pronounced as the tendency towards greater autonomy for Scotland and Wales clashes with a highly centralised mode of policymaking in Westminster, the consequences of which have spilt over into the devolved territories in the context of the post-2007 economic crisis through public expenditure cuts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introductory essay, we outline how recent events have generated considerable debate and discussion surrounding the future constitutional status of Scotland and the current devolutionary settlement in the UK, and how the aim of this collection of papers is to evaluate UK devolution and the policy mobilities surrounding it. We argue that there has been a tendency for scholars to concentrate on the detail of the constitutional and administrative structures and a reluctance to theorise devolution, and suggest geographers can offer a particular contribution here through an understanding of devolution as fundamentally about the interaction of politics, culture and territory. We discuss the value of considering the particular geographies of policy at work, and the role of the everyday work of civil servants in creating and sustaining the creation of new state spaces. We then briefly highlight the main findings of each of the papers in this special collection and show how, together, they add to our understanding of the geographies of devolution and of policy at a critical juncture in the devolution story. We conclude that whatever the particular future for the United Kingdom, the policy interactions between territories will continue to have an important role in their governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It can be argued that public organizations, in order to provide the public with sufficient services in the current, highly competitive and continuously evolving environment, require changes. The changes that become necessary are often related to the implementation of information systems (IS). Moreover, when organizations are faced with changes, a change management (CM) process needs to be put in place. CM theories that are currently available to practitioners and academics are often contradictory; they mostly lack empirical evidence and are supported by unchallenged hypotheses concerning the nature of the contemporary CM. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to identify critical success factors (CFSs) for CM in IS projects. In order to reach this aim an explanation of changes in public organizations and the nature of CM are presented. Following this, a framework of CFSs for CM in IS projects are identified based on the literature review. The paper also examines two IS projects and uses them to demonstrate CFSs influencing CM in IS projects in Polish pubic organizations. A discussion of the research findings is provided and the paper concludes with a presentation of the study's contributions and limitations as well as the stream of future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the linkages among level of economic, managerial, financial, criminal risks and patent activity in Russia. This paper examines the relationship between the economic, managerial, financial and criminal regional risks ratings, on the one hand, and patent activity, as measured by regional patent applications for inventions, on the other.Design/methodology/approach A random effect model was performed for a data sample of 83 regions, covering the period 2006-2010 in Russia.Findings The empirical results show that increased levels of regional economic risks are significantly associated with decrease in patent activity in Russia.Originality/value This study fills a gap within the literature and offers a unique analysis of regional risks and their impact on patent activity. The empirical results showed that economic risk ratings have had considerable negative impact on the patent activities on regional level in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to numerous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, urgent analysis of many temporary inter-satellite links (ISLs) is necessary for mega constellation networks. Therefore, introducing a dynamic link in topology design is crucial for increasing constellation redundancy and improving routing options. This study presents one class of static topology of satellites (STLS) and two types of dynamic topology of satellites (DTLS). Firstly, a call model based on global population density distribution is determined using world population density by provincial administrative divisions. Then, using a common simulation platform, the Dijkstra algorithm obtains random paths between 10,000 pairs of urban ground stations, adopting a time slice division strategy. Finally, 3 indexes are obtained within 66-time slices: average call distance, number of hops, and total time delay. Results show that DTLS1 reduces these indexes by 3.58%, 3.72%, and 3.57%, respectively, compared with DTLS2 under the same conditions, indicating that DTLS1 has the best network performance, transmitting traffic quickly in any direction through the reverse track, thereby verifying the related hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the legal aspects of the independence of public prosecutors should examine the contexts that frame their external and internal independence. The paper proposes the thesis that although the legislation proclaims that within the scope of his/her activities a public prosecutor is independent, though a particular legal solution has significantly limited this independence, and this has made public prosecutors dependent on political guidelines, dispositions, and orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ukraine is a big and diverse country. However, a regionally decentralized territorial setup has never been considered due to the extremely delicate geopolitical situation, to fears of state-capturing and, not least, to a principled approach which sees autonomy as a slope inevitably leading to secession. While the experience with autonomy in independent Ukraine has been indeed negative, this paper argues that the question should at least be considered, as to whether the lack of autonomy and not its supposed presence could be one of the reasons for the present difficult situation. Such a reading, that would have been unthinkable until present, is now being made possible or at least less unrealistic by the limited but overall positive administrative decentralization reforms that took place recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the relationship between tax autonomy and the structure of local public expenditures. We rely on panel data from Poland for more than 2400 municipalities over the years 2002–2014. We use a measure of tax autonomy, based on 'potential' own revenues, defined as revenues that the authorities are entitled to collect, before local tax policies have been implemented. This measure alleviates to some extent the endogeneity of indicators based on actually collected own taxes. Our results suggest a U-shaped relationship between the ratio of own local taxes and the share of capital expenditures and a negative relationship between the former ratio and the share of education spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers are increasingly required to record the actions taken and incidents occurring at farms. They are also expected to use the records to prove that animal welfare and environmental regulations are being followed. Yet, research suggests that record keeping disturbs, rather than supports, farming practices. The policy benefits are also suspected to be scarce. In this paper, we argue that the potential of records to act as useful calculative resources has been overlooked. The Finnish case study shows that recording nutrient use can allow fertilisation practices to be guided by water protection concerns. However, on some farms the requirement to keep nutrient records has been responded in ways that draws a distance between farms and regulatory control. The alignment of farm life and the recording requirements has followed different trajectories from one farm to another. Some farmers contest the science behind the fertilisation limits. Farms may also be poorly equipped to live with the limits that the records make visible. Optimal fertilisation then ceases to be an issue that can be solved by additional calculative support. Instead, record keeping indicates political divisions. • Farmers are required to record actions taken and incidents occurring at farms. • Research suggests that record-keeping disturbs farming practices. • Potentials of records to act as useful calculative resources have been overlooked. • The Finnish case-study shows that record-keeping may indicate political divisions. • On farms, record-keeping gains both mediating and distancing capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to advance our knowledge of the relationships between emotions, affect, and geopolitics. For, among several criticisms of affect’s non-representational theories, is the claim that it has not been used to understand problems of real social and political importance. What is crucially lacking in this important body of work on the nexus between affect and politics is empirically grounded research that examines these processes, especially in situations of geopolitical instability and conflict. In this paper, I seek to address this gap by attending to the geopolitical role of feelings in the volatile political climate of a post-conflict city. Specifically, my work examines the emotional and affective landscapes of daily life in the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina which, twenty years after the war officially ended, continues to experience divisions between its Croat/Catholic and Bosniak/Muslim populations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]