Public Management

The quetion is raised as what sort of science public management is or can be and how cultural theory can contribute to that science. The author critically discusses the pervasive ideas of modernization and global convergence in a cultural-theory framework, suggesting there are more forces for divergence and less common ground on what modernity means in matters of organization than is commonly recognized. It argues that modernization is a rhetorically successful idea because when the powerful but implicit metaphor of technological development that underlies it is carried over into human organization it is inherently ambiguous—so it lends itself to quite different and contradictory ideas about the wave of the future that fit with each of the world views identified by cultural theory. Further, it argues that a vision of global transformation of public management into a convergent modern style is likely to be exaggerated because it ignores powerful forces of path-dependency and self-disequilibration—i.e. the capacity of management reform initiatives to produce the opposite of their intended result.

Christopher Hood, Contemporary Public Management: A New Global Paradigm? Oxford University Press, 2006


Matthew Taylor (ex-IPPR, ex-Downing Street) is making a film for the BBC saying how we must all take more responsibility to avoid waste, get involved in public service provision, and go out and vote.

Source: http://www.adamsmith.org/blog

And Craig Wilson and Peter Wilson have just published a book, Make Poverty Business, which constructs "a rigorous profit-making argument for multinational corporations to do more business with the poor" in developing countries, for purely commercial reasons, such as limiting political risk.

Source: http://makepovertybusiness.squarespace.com/

Madsen Pirie:Environment
The brown rat population has surged by 39 per cent in 2005 according to the National Pest Technicians Association. It said that fortnightly collections and the widespread use of composting bins was exacerbating the problem. The problem would get worse as more councils switched to compulsory recycling, the association said.
One measure used is the distance the average person is from a rat. Last year for Londoners it was put as 'never more than 18 metres' - it is now down to 14 metres. In many areas householders are confused about the complex stipulations, with the result that garbage is regularly left out on the street. The brown rat population has surged by 39 per cent in 2005 according to the National Pest Technicians Association. It said that fortnightly collections and the widespread use of composting bins was exacerbating the problem. The problem would get worse as more councils switched to compulsory recycling, the association said.

One measure used is the distance the average person is from a rat. Last year for Londoners it was put as 'never more than 18 metres' - it is now down to 14 metres. In many areas householders are confused about the complex stipulations, with the result that garbage is regularly left out on the street.

John Davidson, chief executive for the NPTA, was particularly worried at the rise in brown rats, Rattus norvegicus. He said: "It's a grave problem. The way this is growing, it is going to give rise to some kind of public health risk. What will it take for someone to take notice about what it going on?" Included among the risks posed by rats is the spread of Weil's disease, a bacterial infection that kills about a dozen people in Britain every year. Other diseases spread by rats include toxoplasmosis and salmonella.


source:
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog


Benefits from recycling cards:
• Recycling paper saves woods and trees
• It helps us make a difference to the environment
• It saves energy being used to convert timber into paper
• It makes people think about consumer waste
• It reduces the the waste going into landfill
• It reduces the estimated 1 billion Christmas cards that could end up in bins across the UK (Defra)

Source: BBC Oxford
www.bbc.co.uk/oxford


The four ‘ways of life’ identified by Douglas’ Cultural Theory include: civil society (fatalists), government (hierarchists), civil movements and NGOs (ethicists) and the private sector (entrepreneurs). Those engaged in the government way of life and those who are driven by ethical principles are keen on control and regulation. They believe they know best. Thompson used the approach to illuminate how the environment is managed and mismanaged



J. A. Allan, Oxford Center for Water Research, 2006
www.ocwr.ox.ac.uk