The task of designing appropriate institutional arrangements for metropolitan government and planning has recently proved highly contestable politically. We interrogate how the role of the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was zealously contested and hollowed‐out during the 1990s. More recently, the impacts of the neo‐liberal reforms in Auckland have been mediated by a further round of local government reforms inspired by a Third Way ideology and by the imperative to respond to the planning crisis resulting from infrastructure underinvestment. New regionally based governance arrangements and planning processes have been created. We argue that this new commitment to regionalism can realistically expect to be tested by deep‐seated political cleavages within Auckland and by Auckland's relationship with central government.
The paper discusses the implementation of manpower policy as viewed from below, and is a partial critique of ‘bottom‐up approaches’ to implementation studies. It reports on a Social Science Research Council financed study at the School of Advanced Urban Studies which employed both bottom‐up and top‐down methods, and explored the hypothesis that the nature of the employment problem tackled by policy affected implementation. Restructuring policy would be easier to implement than policy designed to ‘mop up’ the effects of restructuring, the least easy to implement being policy designed to redistribute rewards in the labour market. The research attempts to include the view from below the ‘bottom’ usually referred to by bottom‐up theorists. The paper reports, from the point of view of those affected, the failed implementation of the multiple responses at central and local level to the creation of large‐scale redundancies. It shows the presence of ‘garbage can’, ‘symbolic’, ‘crisis‐response’, and ‘ambiguity’ elements in the implementation process. It also shows ‘mobilization of bias’, reluctance to assume responsibility for policy decisions, and the power of the market in implementation. It concludes that ‘economic’ is a quality akin to ‘magic’ which makes its manipulation in implementation extremely difficult, and suggests that powerful implementation institutions are needed if those below the ‘bottoms’ are not to suffer from restructuring in the labour market.
Background: Women living with HIV in Indonesia encounter challenging obstacles to healthcare, which is exacerbated by COVID-19. Access is difficult as there are limited numbers of poorly supported healthcare providers. Women also face significant stigma when disclosing their HIV-status. Objectives: Our main purpose is to give a voice to disempowered women living with HIV, by normalising the discussion of HIV, to empower health professionals to better understand the issues faced by women living with HIV, and develop improved treatment practices. Design: Our project was guided by a Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) framework. FPAR refers to ‘a participatory and action-oriented approach to research that centres gender and women’s experiences both theoretically and practically’. It creates meaningful participation for women throughout the research process, ensuring a collective critical consciousness that challenges oppressive attitudes, beliefs, and practices that may be deeply embedded in society. Method: Purposive sampling and a thematic analysis was applied to focus group discussions with 20 women living with HIV and 20 women without HIV in Palembang, South Sumatra. Results: When women living with HIV face a difficult decision, do they disclose their status knowing that they may face stigma and even a refusal to be treated; or do they conceal their status and face not receiving the right care? In this article, we explore the stories of women living with HIV as they seek medical treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that there is no optimal solution for women as they lose whether they disclose their HIV status or not. Conclusion: Women’s stories around HIV and COVID-19 intersect with conditions such as poverty and discrimination, as well as embedded gender systems, creating overlapping barriers to treatment. Government must challenge this culture by introducing a comprehensive sex and HIV education programme. This would normalise discussions of HIV-related topics, leading to improved health outcomes.
After forty years working in Swindon, Mr Norman Bateman is retiring on June 24, 1988. During the last 25 years he has been a nurse teacher in the Swindon School of Nursing.
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