Utilizing Decision Support Systems For Strategic Public Policy Planning

Advances in GIS technologies have provided a more robust framework for planners and designers. These frameworks offer greater control and monitoring, which can lead to greater accuracy in policymaking and urban planning. Utilizing Decision Support Systems for Strategic Public Policy Planning is an essential research publication that provides comprehensive research on the possibilities of GIS technology for spatial analysis and visualization. Featuring a wide range of topics such as open data, architecture, and regional development, this book is ideal for design professionals, academicians, policymakers, researchers, professionals, and students.

The gap between various social classes occurs due to inequality in various social categories arising from lack of opportunities and exclusion from resource distribution due to various attributes of these societal classifications. The social problems of poverty and inequality created by economic uncertainty become a compelling force for states to introduce welfare programs. Reshaping Social Policy to Combat Poverty and Inequality is a critical scholarly publication that delivers extensive coverage of policy practice and a unique emphasis on the broad issues and human dilemmas inherent in the pursuit of social justice. The book further explores how the economic fluctuations and political change interact with shifting social values to shape and re-shape social policies. Highlighting a range of topics such as economics, discrimination, and sustainable development, this book is essential for policymakers, academicians, researchers, social psychologists, sociologists, government officials, and students.

Turbulent times challenge democratic politics and governance in Western countries. Party systems, in many instances, have failed to produce solutions to vital policy problems, like immigration, state borders, welfare, or environmental issues. While subjective perceptions of macroeconomic outcomes are consistently related to political trust at the micro level, few studies have explored how individuals develop political engagement and identity. New insights are needed from studies focusing on how people become politically active and how political identities develop. Political Identity and Democratic Citizenship in Turbulent Times is a critical scholarly research publication that investigates, discusses, deconstructs, analyzes, and tests the concept of political identity and its evolving role in modern democracy. Moreover, it explores the contours of politics and brings together studies that examine the democratic potential of a diversity of participatory spheres, institutions, and arenas. Highlighting topics such as political culture, consumerism, and welfare states, this book is ideal for politicians, policymakers, government officials, sociologists, historians, academicians, professionals, researchers, and students.

As the field of public administration has been changing due to globalization, government reforms, and increasing governance practices within intergovernmental networks, research and teaching in public administration also adapted itself to these changes. Public policy research and instruction has become transformed and has diffused into other countries with the help of international organizations and other agents of change and transfer. Research in this field is seen as an opportunity for a definitive shift from traditional models of public administration in the sense that policies may be better designed, articulated, and governed through a collaborative approach, while service provision could be enhanced in terms of proximity, representativeness, and innovativeness. The Handbook of Research on Global Challenges for Improving Public Services and Government Operations provides comprehensive approaches to the study of public administration and public policy from a comparative perspective and includes sound theories and concepts for understanding opportunities and challenges governments face when seeking to improve public services and government operations. The book is a compilation of selective high-quality chapters covering cases, experiences, and practical recommendations on topics related to public administration, public policy, social policy, public management, and public affairs. This book is ideal for policymakers, students, and researchers in the field of public administration, public policy, governance, public management, public affairs, citizen engagement, and administrative sciences and management along with practitioners, stakeholders, and academicians interested in the best practices of various countries in public administration and policy.

Though conflicts continue to arise over land use and land cover changes, the conversion of forest land to cropland or other land uses such as housing and urban development have been on the rise in recent years. Decisions regarding land use and land cover influence climate change as well as various natural processes. While proper changes can minimize the effects and speed of climatic changes, the continued adverse changes may be accelerating the deterioration of the world’s condition. Examining International Land Use Policies, Changes, and Conflicts presents the latest research on the present status of land use and land cover changes throughout the world in order to determine appropriate land use policies that can protect earth’s present and future condition. The findings of the studies investigate the conflicts behind the land tenure and land uses in different countries of the world and examines existing policies and the reasons behind changes in them. Ultimately, the book provides readers with knowledge on how land can be managed in a sustained manner, how landscape models are helpful for predicting and determining future land uses, how land can be managed with the best architectural measures, and how urban forestry is helpful for better environmental management and adapting or mitigating climate change effects. Land users, agriculturalists, urban planners, policymakers, government officials, researchers, academicians, and students looking to improve their understanding of this topic for better use of land in the future will find this book to be an asset to their current research.

Existing research understands co-production as leading to shifts in roles of the public sector institutions and their staffs. The shift is seen in the way that a discursive use of the term service provision with embedded logics encompassing fiscal accountability, performance measurement, efficiency, and process regulation has changed towards discourses that embrace collaboration between the public sector front staff and the citizens, with the aim of developing legitimate and effective welfare services that are co-produced by means of active participation and distributed decision making. However, this change requires new approaches to the way in which the implementation of new practices and tools is executed in practice as studied and researched, and how the new practices and tools are understood and evaluated in organizations. Processual Perspectives on the Co-Production Turn in Public Sector Organizations is an essential reference book that examines, unfolds, and develops approaches to co-production and implementation as dynamic, processual, collaborative, sensemaking, and as requiring and resulting in capacity building and learning. Moreover, the book examines new approaches to engage citizens and public sector actors in collaborative and co-productive processes, especially with concern for new goals pertaining to sustainability, social equity, democratic legitimacy, etc. Covering topics that include knowledge management and collective leadership, the book presents perspectives on capacity building, learning, change, and evaluation in organizations and current research in different areas of the public sector. It is intended for public sector administrators and managers investigating the relevancy, approaches, and methods in co-production. Furthermore, it targets civil actors and welfare service users, leaders and managers of public organizations, researchers, academicians, and students in programs that include social welfare development, public administration, political science, and organizational development.

The application of theory to practice in addressing social transformation still has a lot of room for growth and improvement. This is also true of theory being informed by practice. Too often, there are gaps between what is studied in the academy and what is needed in the field. The academy develops theories in isolation from the everyday lives of people, especially in post-conflict environments. Communities seeking innovative ways to address their social needs can benefit from the learning of theories and research conducted within academia. At the same time, these methods need to be relevant to the local contexts within which they are being used. While there are certain norms of communication in the academy of how research is conducted and disseminated, there needs to be a translation into practical terms to be used in the field. Redefining Theory and Practice to Guide Social Transformation: Emerging Research and Opportunities addresses the need practitioners and social change agents have in finding processes and practices to use in the field to engage with and transform communities. This critical reference book provides an innovative fieldwork method that leads to social transformation and suggests ways to further develop the relationship between academic theories and practices around social conflicts with the existing local knowledge. The chapters include mini case studies that have been developed over the years from the authors’ work with youth and community leaders with the objective of providing a methodology that allows practitioners to approach the field by engaging with local actors in ways that are generative and trustworthy, yet rigorous. While highlighting the practices, notions, and technologies that are at work in conflict, post-conflict, or transitioning out of conflict settings by local community leaders, this book is ideally for practitioners in the field of conflict, peacebuilding, and social and conflict transformation; community leaders and social organizers; as well as practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in social transformation.

'Planning Under Pressure' offers a versatile and practical set of planning methods for collaborative decision making, which is ideally suited for reaching decisions in conditions of uncertainty. This approach is equally valid for planning and development decisions in local government and strategic business planning. When 'Planning Under Pressure' appeared in 1987, it was the first mature exposition of the Strategic Choice Approach. Since then, the approach has been gathering support among decision makers, while also becoming widely taught in management, planning and policy schools. The second edition reflects the diverse range of contexts in which the Strategic Choice Approach is now put to work: management, urban planning, public policy making, community action, and sustainable development in third world countries. New material includes a chapter on the role of software, and coverage of recent theoretical advances. * Versatile and practical set of planning methods for collaborative decision making * Valuable approach for a wide range of professions and markets * Clearly presented for ease of reference