Search results for "national policy"
showing 10 items of 17 documents
River Contracts for Innovation in Territorial Governance
2016
Emerged in France in 1980s as agreements oriented to the requalification of rivers and lakes, river contracts represent an important outcome of the decentralization process, developed in Europe in reply to the growing institutional fragmentation. In this scenario, rivers have become a dialectic arena in which the exploitation and management of water resources came to terms with environmental instances, and offered the breeding ground for concerted efforts between policy makers, stakeholders and communities. In this chapter, the analysis is focused on the river contract model and the related set of instruments capable of supporting concerted and participatory management processes both with r…
The Relationships Between Local and National Childcare Policies – A Comparison of Nordic and Southern European Cities
2015
We start by comparing the childcare systems in the 11 European cities, looking particularly at whether the childcare provision in these cities follows national provision levels or not. We then focus on analyzing the relationships between local and national childcare policies in four European cities: Bologna (Italy) and Terrassa (Spain) from Southern Europe, and Jyvaskyla (Finland) and Aalborg (Denmark) from the Nordic countries. The availability and use of childcare services are analyzed, as are other factors influencing the possibilities and obstacles of labour market participation for mothers with young children. The aim of this analysis is to demonstrate the significance of local welfare…
Globalization and leadership and management: a comparative analysis of primary schools in England and Finland
2006
This article analyses the impact of processes of globalization on both policy and practice in relation to primary school leadership and management in England and Finland. Data are drawn from case study research carried out from 1994–1996 in six schools in Finland and six schools in England and a follow‐up study on teacher professionalism (2001–2002) that involved 37 of the original participants being re‐interviewed. The article contributes to the ongoing debate concerning the extent to which global trends lead to homogeneity in educational systems or a ‘glocalized’ response. Such a glocalized response is derived not only from different cultural mediations at the national policy level but al…
RISK ASSESSMENT IN ROMANIA: FROM LEGISLATION TO NEEDS AND POSSIBILITIES
2006
Ecological risk assessment (ERA) is an integral part of the environmental policy assumed by the Romanian Government, according to the standards of the European Union, to which our country hopes to be admitted in 2007. Even though very difficult, the negotiations chapter on environment protection was closed not long ago, the norms the Government has passed, inspired by the Community ones, being quite convincing. The paper presents the general ERA national policy framework, as well as some cases of where human health and ERA have been or should be applied: Baia Mare cyanide spill; Copsa Mica area, where the old pollution with Pb and Cd encompasses more than 40 km 2 , with high risks for popul…
The Sociocultural Basis for Innovation
2018
This chapter argues how economic behaviour in geography could be understood as historically anchored varieties of practice. Contemporary European patterns replicate deep anthropological dispositions as suggested by authors like Geert Hofstede and Emmanuel Todd, and substantiated by Duranton et al. (Types and the persistence of regional disparities in Europe. Economic Geography, 85(1), 23–47, 2009). Old, formative schemes are still operating and new institutional forms, be they cultural, economic or political, are conditioned by their mechanisms. This also goes for innovation. However, in the field of innovation policies, culturally explained variations, cleavages and mismatches are translat…
Finnish mergers : Change in the Context of Continuity
2016
This chapter focuses on three prominent university mergers in Finland which took place during the last decade. In order to understand the mergers and the developments that led to them, we highlight broader higher education policy change, most notably the making and implementation of the new Universities Act (558/2009). The changing discourse around the role of higher education (Nokkala, 2016) and the changing of the Universities Act took place in parallel to the merger processes, thus forming the broader political context which the structural development took place. In our analysis, we take as our central perspective the roles of the national actors to introduce national translations and so…
The Bologna Process in Finland
2007
The aim of this chapter is to analyse how the Bologna Process influences Finnish higher education by examining what changes are related to or caused by it. The study focuses first on the social field of national higher education policy-making, and second on the study of higher education institutions examined from the perspective of academic basic units. The study is based on critical analysis of national policy documents and on a qualitative case study conducted at the University of Jyvaskyla in the spring term of 2004. The qualitative case study was based on thematic focus group interviews. The themes of the interview can be found in the Appendix 1. In order to reach a more comprehensive u…
Effects of Fiscal Stimulus in Structural Models
2010
The paper assesses, using seven structural models used heavily by policymaking institutions, the effectiveness of temporary fiscal stimulus. Models can, more easily than empirical studies, account for differences between fiscal instruments, for differences between structural characteristics of the economy, and for monetary-fiscal policy interactions. Findings are: (i) There is substantial agreement across models on the sizes of fiscal multipliers. (ii) The sizes of spending and targeted transfers multipliers are large. (iii) Fiscal policy is most effective if it has some persistence and if monetary policy accommodates it. (iv) The perception of permanent fiscal stimulus leads to significant…
Lifelong Learning: international injunctions and university practices
2001
JEAN-PIERRE JALLADE & JOSE´-GINE´S MORAIntroductionThe aim of this article is to elucidate whether the international discourse onlifelong learning (LLL) had any influence on what universities are doing in thisfield. International trends will be examined on the basis of OECD, UNESCO,EU and Council of Europe policy documents. University practice will be based onan enquiry carried out in 28 universities in seven European countries in 1999–2000 in the framework of the project Lifelong Learning and the University,sponsored by the EU/DG 12.Between the international policy discourse and university practice stands thenational layer of policy-making, giving rise to two interesting issues: first, don…
Whose quality? Social actors in the interface of transnational and national higher education policy
2008
The article analyzes the construction of national reactions to a transnational higher education policy from the point of view of the representation of social actors in policy documents. The data are provided by the so-called Bologna Process, particularly the development of comparable quality assurance systems, and Finnish responses to those demands. Who is represented as active and who as passive, as European policies are discursively translated into national policies? How are those ‘quality actors’ represented in the policy documents directed at a transnational audience (i.e. the Bologna Process communiques, as well as national reports on its advancement) as opposed to documents directed a…