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To provide a brief illustration of how the circumstances of economic underdevelopment and ecological decline are reciprocally linked, we can begin by tracing the post‐World War II history of Africa. Political histories of the post‐war period abound for almost all parts of the continent, since it was during this era that many African colonies struggled for and won political independence. Detailed ecological histories of colonialism and the post‐colonial states, however, are just beginning to be researched and written. Nevertheless, several broad patterns and general trends of this history are now becoming apparent, and they can be set forth in rough narrative form even though detailed histories have yet to be compiled.

This purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide a framework for understanding anti‐poverty strategies in public policy when effective, enabling, governance is recognised to be the outcome of multiple agencies (public, civil society and private).

Cultural theory – providing the methodological approach – suggests that individualist, hierarchical and group biases underlie market thinking, bureaucratic thinking and the thinking of civil society institutions and are, in essence, incompatible. Each kind of thinking can be linked to ideologies of development (or “modernisation”) yet enabling strategies (and New Labour's “Third Way”) require state, market and civil society to work collaboratively, across boundaries.

The main finding is that the interface between types of organisation will always be awkward; the point at which transaction costs mount up and “partnerships” falter.

For central agencies the practical implication is that an enabling role requires an understanding of other mind sets or, failing that, a willingness to find a standard, pre‐negotiated hybrid formula that works, as evident in some well‐known instances of developing country programmes or projects that depend upon effective links between “incompatible” systems.

For both public policy strategists and practitioners the paper may throw new light on age‐old problems in poverty alleviation and public policy implementation.

The White Paper on Local Government in South Africa signals the intention to establish a performance management system for the sector. This paper suggests that current approaches to performance management, as used, for instance, in the UK public sector, would need substantial revision to be supportive of effective municipal development in South Africa. There is a need for low cost systems that fit the capabilities of the administrations that exist in many municipalities. A focus upon how municipalities manage their governance role would in the end be the best way of ensuring that liveable communities as well as improved services are created in the towns and rural areas of South Africa. The paper provides some ideas on the design of such a performance management or enhancement system. Its principal features would be that it is: based on mutual organisational learning and problem solving; using simple, indirect, low cost information gathering and dissemination techniques that are within the capabilities of existing leaders and officials; focused on processes in priority to outcomes.

This paper presents the development process, methodology and findings from the first stage of an ongoing collaborative research project undertaken to determine the performance indicators employed by hotel general managers. The main focus of the study is to gain a greater understanding of the decision‐making context in which general managers of national and international hotel chains use performance measures (with properties located in Europe). In particular, interest is directed at assessing the match between the “key indicators” used by general managers, their “interpretation” of the indicators and the use made of the indicators for “decision‐making”. By drawing upon theoretical concepts and empirical evidence in the literature, the content examines performance measurement in a hotel industry context and presents the analysis and evaluation of quantitative results.

The current focus on psychological well‐being and the treatment of people experiencing common mental disorder in primary care is of interest to health professionals and economists alike (Centre for Economic Performance Mental Health Policy Group, 2006). This brings with it an important opportunity to consider how services for people living with long term medical conditions may benefit from developments in widening access to psychological therapies. The National Service Framework for Longterm Conditions (DoH, 2005a) aims to improve the quality of life for people living with chronic medical conditions. Further to this, NICE Guidelines for the Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) (NICE, 2004a) specifically focuses attention on quality of life issues for COPD sufferers and the influence of co‐morbid mental disorder on the ability of individuals to optimise selfmanagement of their condition. By examining issues relating to co‐morbidity of common mental disorders within the long‐term condition of COPD this paper concerns itself with how the agenda for widening access to psychological therapies delivered through a stepped model of care and the introduction of new mental health workforce roles such as community matrons, case managers and primary care graduate mental health workers (PCGMHWs) provides an opportunity for primary care services to integrate mental health care into chronic disease management for COPD, which in turn may provide a model for the development of services for other long‐term medical conditions.

During the late twentieth century in the field of social studies education, Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann, and James Shaver were prominent leaders. Their work on the Harvard Social Studies Project was part of the New Social Studies movement popular in the 1960s and 1970s that attempted to transform the social studies curriculum nationwide. By creating materials that focused on inquiry-based learning, they aimed to make a difference in the way that social studies courses were taught in American schools. The focus of this research is an analysis of the content and impact of the Harvard Social Studies Project and an exploration of the contributions of Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann, and James Shaver to that project. Historical research methods served as the primary theoretical framework for guiding the investigation. Oliver, Newmann, and Shaver’s work on the Harvard Social Studies Project not only established all three men as influential leaders in social studies education but also laid the groundwork for their subsequent work in broader areas of education.

Some economists who normally prefer to rely on free market solutions to economic problems often consider money a special good that requires government control to prevent overissue. But free banking advocates take the position that the market can control the supply of money without any government imposed rule. The type of banking system envisioned by the latter school would be one in which banks would be subjected to no restrictions regarding balance sheet choices and would be allowed to charge what they want on loans and pay what the market dictated on any source of funds. Each bank would be free to issue distinctive banknotes as well as deposits redeemable into some reserve asset that banks would hold in accordance with their goal of profit maximization subject to the necessary liquidity cost. There would be no required reserve holding, no minimum amount of capital, nor any restrictions on the type of loans a bank could make, nor where they could establish branch offices. Government's only role would be to enforce contracts and to punish fraud.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.