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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Ideas And Collaborative Governance: A Discursive Localism Approach, Neil Bradford
Ideas And Collaborative Governance: A Discursive Localism Approach, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
In recent years, interest has grown in collaboration in public policy. Responding to the complex issues now playing out in cities, scholars are focusing on localized governance relations that blur boundaries between public, private, and community sectors. This article introduces discursive localism as a framework to understand better collaborative urban governance. It argues that ideas play a pivotal role in motivating collective action, channeling policy resources, and shaping governance relations. Although recent urban-focused accounts of collective action suggest a role for ideas, systematic attention to their normative-philosophical and cognitive-programmatic dimensions reveals how different policy discourses frame incentives and institutions for …
Governing Regional Economic Development: Innovation Challenges And Policy Learning In Canada, Neil Bradford, David Wolfe
Governing Regional Economic Development: Innovation Challenges And Policy Learning In Canada, Neil Bradford, David Wolfe
Neil Bradford
Regional development policy offers a fascinating window on the interplay between the spatial distribution of economic activity and the interaction across multiple levels of government. Canada provides a compelling case to examine the theory and practice of regional development due to the diverse nature of its economy, the decentralised nature of its federation and more than five decades of federal policy activism. This article explores Canada's six regional development agencies, adopting an organisational learning lens to explain a paradigm shift in policy from redistribution to innovation. Two prominent traditions in regional studies--'nested scales' of economic innovation and 'multi-level governance' of …
Territory And Local Development: A Place-Based Perspective, Neil Bradford
Territory And Local Development: A Place-Based Perspective, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
No abstract provided.
Economic Ideas And Development Strategy: The Case Of London Ontario, Neil Bradford
Economic Ideas And Development Strategy: The Case Of London Ontario, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
The past two decades in Canada have witnessed significant economic restructuring and public policy innovation. While most research concentrates on federal recovery plans and provincial adjustment strategies, this article makes the case for studying actors and places on the restructuring front lines. Offering an ideational analysis of change dynamics in London, Ontario, a mid-sized manufacturing city, the article reveals a pattern of incremental policy adjustment even as bold ideas contesting the status quo were brought forward. Arguing that particular institutional-political settings operative at different governance scales shape the policy influence of ideas, the article situates the London experience in broader …
Canadian Social Policy In The 2000s: Bringing Place In, Neil Bradford
Canadian Social Policy In The 2000s: Bringing Place In, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
No abstract provided.
Learning Through Evaluation? Reflections On Two Federal Community-Building Initiatives, Neil Bradford, Jill Chouinard
Learning Through Evaluation? Reflections On Two Federal Community-Building Initiatives, Neil Bradford, Jill Chouinard
Neil Bradford
In recent years, the federal government has launched numerous pilot projects to tackle complex, localized policy problems through new modes of governance involving vertical engagement with community-based organizations and horizontal collaboration across departments. A key purpose of these time-limited projects is policy learning, with an emphasis on action research and stakeholder dialogue to inform future innovation. However, realizing the possibilities for learning through pilot projects requires evaluation frameworks sensitive to the particular challenges of collaborative and community-based policy making. Through comparative case study analysis of two recent federal pilot projects, we highlight tensions in prevailing approaches and explore strategies for …
Placing Social Policy? Reflections On Canada’S New Deal For Cities And Communities, Neil Bradford
Placing Social Policy? Reflections On Canada’S New Deal For Cities And Communities, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
This article analyses the New Deal for Cities and Communities pursued by the federal Liberal government between 2004 and 2006. Situating the initiative in broader urban policy debates about the merits of place-based interventions in tackling problems of poverty and exclusion, it is argued that the New Deal represented a novel attempt at "interscalar policy coordination" within Canadian federalism. Three specific policy tools are identified as central to the New Deal framework-municipal revenue transfers; urban development agreements; and community action research. To understand the New Deal's impact, the implementation of these tools is explored in the context of the City …
Place Matters And Multi-Level Governance: Perspectives On A New Urban Policy Paradigm, Neil Bradford
Place Matters And Multi-Level Governance: Perspectives On A New Urban Policy Paradigm, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
No abstract provided.
Public-Private Partnership? Shifting Paradigms Of Economic Governance In Ontario, Neil Bradford
Public-Private Partnership? Shifting Paradigms Of Economic Governance In Ontario, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
In recent years, many governments have embraced new modes of economic governance that rely on public-private partnerships. These forms of governance effectively devolve authority and responsibility from the state, and instead rely on the policy networks found in civil society. This article argues that despite the general enthusiasm for such decentralized collaboration, there is significant variation in its meaning and practice. Comparing the public-private partnership strategies of two governments in Ontario in the 1990s, the article analyzes the origins and progress of two distinctive governance paradigms, looking for signs of economic innovation. The case studies demonstrate that each of the …
Renewing Social Democracy? Beyond The Third Way, Neil Bradford
Renewing Social Democracy? Beyond The Third Way, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
No abstract provided.
Writing Public Philosophy: Canada's Royal Commissions On Everything, Neil Bradford
Writing Public Philosophy: Canada's Royal Commissions On Everything, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
This article explores the contributions to Canadian policy development and policy thought of three royal commissions of political-economic inquiry: the 1940 Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations; the 1958 Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects; and the 1985 Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada. Each commission is examined through tree areas of concern: The context for its appointment, the content of its report and the nature of its subsequent influence.
The Policy Influence Of Ideas: Interests, Institutions And Innovation In Canada, Neil Bradford
The Policy Influence Of Ideas: Interests, Institutions And Innovation In Canada, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
No abstract provided.
Prospects For Associative Governance: Lessons From Ontario, Canada, Neil Bradford
Prospects For Associative Governance: Lessons From Ontario, Canada, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
The writer considers the prospects for the strategic construction of associative governance in liberal politics and capitalistic economies, taking as an example Ontario, Canada, which is one of North America's leading associative democratic laboratories. He examines innovative dynamics in three discrete but interrelated fields that constituted the policy foundation of an effort undertaken between 1985 and 1995 to build a new partnership-based governance regime mandated to put in place a diversifies quality production restructuring project. The fields that he explores are occupational health and safety, labor market training, and industrial development. He points out that the outcome of Ontario's experiment …
Which Ideas Matter When? From Technocratic Keynesianism To Neo-Liberalism, Neil Bradford
Which Ideas Matter When? From Technocratic Keynesianism To Neo-Liberalism, Neil Bradford
Neil Bradford
No abstract provided.