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In common with many other societies with ageing populations, loneliness and social isolation have become a significant problem in contemporary Japan. The financial burden associated with an ageing population, together with ongoing fiscal austerity, has severely constrained the ability of local authorities to address the problem. As a result, policymakers have sought cost‐effective methods of tackling the problem, including local co‐production with community groups. In this article, we consider the impact of loneliness and social isolation on wellbeing and then examine two illustrative case studies of local co‐production programs aimed at tackling social isolation amongst older adults in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis is used to measure the technical and scale efficiency of the domestic waste management function in 103 New South Wales local governments. After allowance is made for [...]

The University of New England, Armidale, Australia Journal of Asian and African Studies Vol. 24 (1989) PP. 259-262 [Research Communication] Martin Murray provides an excellent synoptic survey of recent trends [...]

There is now widespread acceptance of the critical role social capital and its attendant dimension of a 'sense of place' can play in nurturing poor rural communities and in reversing the current trend towards growing regional economic and social disparities. Although state and federal governments can undoubtedly assist in the accumulation of social capital in poor rural communities, it has been persuasively argued that local communities themselves hold the key to the health of peripheral rural and provincial areas. The question thus arises as to whether local government can indeed foster the development of social capital given its present range of functions., Introduction Since Eva Cox's widely acclaimed 1997 Boyer Lectures, the notion of `social capital' has come into increasing prominence in Australian policy debates on regional economic and social inequalities, especially [...]

An embryonic literature exists on policy failures by the Australian Government, which has examined inter alia the Home Insulation Program, the Green Loans Program, the Building the Education Revolution, and the macroeconomic stimulus package following the global financial crisis. This article contributes to this literature by considering the introduction of the Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) and its subsequent performance in terms of revenue. We evaluate the implementation of the MRRT using theoretical insights from the policy analysis literature and attempt to draw some broader public policy “lessons”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martin Murray provides an excellent synoptic survey of recent trends in South African historiography in which he claims that the twin perspective Marxist approach has replaced the liberal orthodoxy as the dominant paradigm. It is argued that Murray's survey is deficient in at least three ways. Firstly, the implications of the divisions between 'social historians' and 'structuralists' are not sufficiently explored. Secondly, the contentious periodisation issue is ignored. And thirdly, the impact of Merle Lipton's monumental study and the consequent possibility of a synthesis emerging are neglected.

While a substantial theoretical and empirical literature has examined compulsory local government consolidation, little is known about de-amalgamation after forced mergers. Following the controversial 2008 Queensland local government amalgamation programme, which saw a radical reduction in the number of local councils, four forcibly merged councils have finally begun to de-amalgamate following successful plebiscites. This paper traces the extraordinary Queensland de-amalgamation process from its inception and attempts to place it in a broader conceptual framework. The paper provides a critical assessment of Queensland de-amalgamation policy development and implementation and seeks to draw broader public policy lessons for structural reform in local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many nations, Australia has a mixed history with water engineering. For over a century the engineer was 'king' and water was harnessed as a vehicle for settling the harsh inland, creating wealth and building prosperity. By the 1960s it was becoming increasingly clear that this approach was not without its flaws. Mounting evidence of environmental degradation emerged in the 1970s and the trend towards fiscal responsibility in the 1980s subjected the engineering approach to even greater scrutiny. These events set the context for a series of water policy reforms that commenced in earnest in the early 1990s. Initially, the reforms favoured greater use of economic incentives and focussed attention on the ecological impacts of water management. In this environment, the status of the engineer was transformed from 'king' to 'servant'. However, the engineering profession was not to hold this status for long and the political difficulties of simultaneously dealing with the economics and ecology of water quickly became the rationale for reverting to engineering solutions. This paper traces these historical events and focusses specifically on the politically vexing issues that arise when water reallocation is attempted in a fully allocated basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the nature and extent of efficiency and productivity growth in Australian local government is investigated using nonparametric frontier technique. Employing Malmquist indices, productivity growth is decomposed into technical efficiency change and technological change for two important local government functions: domestic waste management and recycling services and planning and regulatory services. The results indicate that there was little or no productivity growth at the frontier during the period in question although there was substantial improvement in the relative efficiency of nearly all councils in both functions. That productivity growth which did occur appears largely due to and increase in efficiency over the period with improvements in scale efficiency dominating for larger, urban developed councils and improvements in technical efficiency being notable for smaller, rural agricultural councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]