Topic Review
Citizen Participation in City Management and Governance
Citizen participation in the management and governance of their cities is not a simple process, even when city authorities value citizen opinions. To optimize this process and face diminishing public trust due to scandals, corruption, worsening of the economic situation and inequalities, city authorities are changing and updating government mechanisms to increase citizen participation.
  • 861
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Evaluating Public Services Considering Expectations of Users
Evaluating public services has become an important task in order to direct actions that may positively affect with the quality of the service provided by governments. To undertake an effective evaluation, it is necessary to analyze data and information on the impact of the services. A wide range of studies have been proposed to measure how an organization delivers its services according to the expectations of the stakeholders. Public sector services should be designed to allow citizens to manage their lives most efficiently. Such designs should be based on an understanding of the experience and the services shaped to integrate into the user’s world. A good strategy will avoid (or mitigate) failure, especially of electronic government projects. 
  • 810
  • 02 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Toward Ghana Smart Land Management
Land acquisition in Ghana is fraught with challenges of multiple sales, numerous unofficial charges, unnecessary bureaucracies, intrusion of unqualified middlemen, and lack of transparency among others. Studies have suggested digitization as a way forward to improve Ghana’s land management system and to address these acquisition challenges. However, none of these studies have specifically provided a clear conceptual digital framework for land acquisition. This article applies an integrative review, mixed with strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, and deductive lessons from a digital land registry concept to develop a blockchain-based smart land acquisition framework solution in view of Ghana’s land acquisition challenges
  • 722
  • 07 Jun 2021
Topic Review
E-Government Service
Electronic government serves to connect activities between society and the government. People are familiar with the term electronic government and have used other government applications to support their activities, such as searching for regional information, tourism potential, e-filing, and electronic citizen cards. The evolution of electronic government is occurring very quickly to facilitate the complex problems faced today and prepare for changes in the future. The role of government cannot be separated from service activities to the general citizen. One of the digital channels is electronic government, that can be used as a two-way service media that can adapt to changes both technically, as well as in design and strategy. Electronic government quality is an important domain that can influence citizens’ responses to the quality of facilities provided by the government. Connection quality is a user’s concept of what is felt that affects the quality of credence and contentment to the perceived experience.
  • 695
  • 05 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Developmental State and Central Taiwan Science Park
By the establishment of science parks, Taiwan has achieved the ability to form high-tech industrial clusters and provided an environment for sustainable industrial development. The sustainable development generated by the science parks indicates Taiwan’s transition from state leadership (strong state, weak society) to state guidance (strong state, strong society). However, despite its contribution to the long-term development of Taiwan’s economy, the CTSP development has been accompanied by environmental downsides, risking the sustainability goals. In conclusion, the state’s role in making CTSP successful and sustainable, the determining role of regulatory regimes, and moving from state leadership to state guidance are emphasized.
  • 682
  • 28 Oct 2021
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
COVID-19 and Peace in Conflict-Affected Areas
The relationship between COVID-19 and peace has been considered from a variety of perspectives. In addition, different empirical studies on the link between the pandemic and peace in conflict-affected areas exist. However, little work has been performed on examining these studies to highlight key findings on the theme of COVID-19 and peace in conflict-affected areas. A conflict-affected area is a country, or part of a country, where widespread violence or armed conflict was present when COVID-19 emerged in December 2019, or that was transitioning from recent armed conflict to peace by the time the disease arose. What do we know, so far, about how peace has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in conflict-affected areas? To address this question, this paper begins by recognizing the multidimensionality of peace and clarifying that the main aspects of peace in conflict-affected areas being considered in the article are relations between conflict parties, peace efforts, and peace processes. Afterwards, the paper discusses existing evidence regarding the impact of COVID-19 and state responses to it on these components of peace in conflict-affected areas. The conflict-affected areas considered include Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria, the Philippines, Yemen, and other zones. The central finding of the article is that the existing studies on COVID-19 and peace in conflict-affected areas present mixed findings. On the one hand, the virus generated opportunities for cooperation between conflict parties in some cases, such as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip of Israel-Palestine. However, on the other hand, it created conditions that enabled conflict and impeded peace efforts and processes in many or most conflict-affected areas. The paper explains that two factors that determined how the disease affected peace in conflict-affected and non-conflict-affected areas are the pre-COVID-19 political and socio-economic conditions in an area, and how state and non-state actors responded to the pandemic. The article closes with a summary of the discussion and identification of its major limitations. 
  • 670
  • 28 Sep 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Local Government Emergency Management
According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), emergency management is “charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to threats/hazards and cope with disasters” (FEMA, n.d.). Local government emergency management involves the efforts of municipalities, cities, counties, and special government entities in responding to threats/hazards and coping with emergencies.
  • 608
  • 10 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Refugee Researchers in COVID-19 Pandemic
The ongoing ‘refugee crisis’ of the past years has led to the migration of refugee researchers (RRs) to European countries. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, RRs often had to work from home and/or to continue their social, cultural and economic integration process under new conditions. An online survey carried out to explore the impact of the pandemic on the refugee researchers showed that RRs found it difficult to adapt their everyday working life to the ‘home’ setting. The majority have had neither a suitable work environment at home nor the appropriate technology. Although they stated that they are rather pleased with the measures taken by the public authorities, they expressed concern about their vulnerability due to their precarious contracts and the bureaucratic asylum procedures, as the pandemic has had a negative impact on these major issues. The majority of RRs working in academia seem not to have been affected at all as far as their income is concerned, while the majority of those employed in other sectors became unemployed during the pandemic (58%). Recommendations are provided to the public authorities and policy makers to assist RRs to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic on their life. 
  • 536
  • 19 Jul 2021
Topic Review
NDIS Participants with Psychosocial Disabilities and Life-Limiting Diagnoses
Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is a key reform providing support to the disability population nationally. No peer-reviewed or grey literature was retrieved on the phenomena. Therefore, three lines of enquiry were developed: experiences of NDIS participants living with psychosocial disabilities; the death, dying, and palliative care supports and experiences of NDIS participants of any disability type; and the experiences for people living with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) and life-limiting diagnoses. 
  • 519
  • 09 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Carbon Trading Scheme Synergistic Effect
The externality cost of carbon emission can be internalized through emission trading schemes (ETSs), which contribute to carbon emission reduction. Consequently, ETSs have been widely adopted in the implementation of emission reduction targets.
  • 515
  • 25 May 2021
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