'Hired Hands' or 'Local Voice': Understandings and Experience of Local Participation in Conservation

In recent years, the notion of local participation has emerged as a major force in both policy-making and political philosophy. This paper explores the role that participation is playing in mediating relations between local people, conservation organizations and the ideas and practices of nature conservation in England. Drawing upon empirical research in the county of Kent, the paper argues that there are systematic discrepancies between the motives, experiences and understandings of the various policy actors towards the theory and practice of a participatory conservation. It argues that these apparent discrepancies have serious implications for both the credibility and the effectiveness of present initiatives, whereby participatory practice serves to reshape existing conceptions of conservation and rural space.     

The cultural dimension in comparative research: Making sense of development control in France

There is a tendency amongst planners to think of planning systems as phenomena with an independent existence that may be directly compared. Such a view lingers even where the concept of end‐state planning has long been abandoned, and where it is understood that the context for plan‐making and development control is an important factor in comparing systems of different countries. This paper will argue that systems of plans and development control procedures are essentially creatures of the cultures which give rise to them. They are to be understood as expressions of underlying beliefs about the way that decisions ought to be taken for the administration of a country. This paper presents three cases drawn from the author's own experience of research in France as indicative of the approach. The first, a development control case of the extension to a heavy goods vehicle depot, looks at the cultural factors that affected the way the application was determined. The second, concerning the formal development control agreements between state and commune in rural France, hinges on the understanding of the concept of a plan. The third, a consultation procedure in Lyon, is dependent for its explanation on the status of the participants in the procedure. Such an approach implies a mature understanding of the way in which a country works, not merely of its planning system. It implies an ability to communicate in the language of the country being studied. The paper concludes by suggesting that comparative research has important benefits for the understanding of planning in the home country, because of the way in which, if properly done, it questions the assumptions that are made about the nature and purpose of planning.     

Technology‐Led Innovation: The Non‐Linearity of US Jet Propulsion Development

Despite repeated announcements of its death or uselessness, the ‘linear model’ of science–technology relations persists, the notion that fundamental scientific research precedes applied studies that in time generate technological advances. This article undertakes first to revisit investigations and critiques of the model, and to remind historians of technology that intriguing alternatives to it have been developed. Second, using the case study of Cold War military jet propulsion, it argues that innovative, complex technologies have been created without reliable understanding of scientific fundamentals. These were messy, non‐linear, and failure‐filled processes, to be sure, yet they may well prove to have been more the rule than the exception, once scholars pursue richly textured studies of technical practice in experimental development. Ultimately, project needs to overcome engineering obstacles in technological innovation may provide the platforms and the funding to support basic scientific research as well, reversing the linear model’s expected flows.     

Media,Language Policy and Cultural Change in Tatarstan: Historic vs. Pragmatic Claims to Nationhood

Abstract. The politics of national identity in the Republic of Tatarstan are complex and often contradictory. Although sometimes posed in terms of an historical legacy, claims to nationhood are also strongly shaped by more pragmatic contemporary concerns. In addition to more conventional forms of political mobilisation, national identity is also contested in cultural arenas. Examining policies on language reform and media development, for example, sheds light on the processes through which a sense of national identity is currently being renegotiated in Tatarstan. The Republic's official multicultural policy is situated in the context of a range of distinct conceptions of Tatarstan's identity, from radical Islamic nationalism to a view of the republic as a Russian province.     

The Localism Principle in Communications Policymaking and Policy Analysis: Ambiguity, Inconsistency, and Empirical Neglect

Localism long has been a central guiding principle in communications policymaking, yet its specific meaning and objectives have not been well articulated by policymakers. This article attempts to bring greater clarity to the localism principle, through an examination of how the Federal Communications Commission has defined local programming. Policymakers have failed to establish a clear and stable definition of what constitutes local programming, which has contributed to the sense of ambiguity, uncertainty, and inconsistency that long has characterized localism policymaking. If localism policies are to reflect the rationales upon which they are based, the definition of local programming must be expanded to account not only for a program's point of origin, but for the nature of a program's content as well.