Serving in the capacity of Sheriff's interns during the time the decision had been made to implement Neighborhood Team Policing, the writers of this study propose to participate in evaluating the impact and effectiveness of the project. However, due to the size and complexity of such a task--and the time restrictions placed upon completion of this study--the boundaries of this research will be limited to those of providing descriptive data on the performance of project activities as they relate to the achievement of the objectives of Goal 1 of the Neighborhood Team Policing Project: Improved police-community mutual involvement and problem-solving.

To better understand the value of those who engage in environmental stewardship of natural areas, we studied volunteer steward's motivation to participate, their sustainable behaviors and attitudes toward stewardship-related constructs. Specifically, we designed and conducted a survey of volunteers who work as stewards in urban natural areas in Portland, Oregon. We hypothesize that as volunteer frequency increases: participants will be more motivated to participate for environmental reasons, volunteers will be more likely to feel a strong connection to the stewardship site, participants will be more likely to engage in public pro-environmental behaviors, and their level of environmental literacy will increase. Participants were sampled using a face-to-face survey methodology over the course of late winter and spring of 2012 during 18 different Portland Parks and Recreation sponsored stewardship events. We examined the motivations, attitudes and behaviors of the volunteers, and devised appropriate management implications for those organizing volunteer efforts. We equated a three-tiered typology of environmental literacy, based upon the frequency of volunteer participation, and analyzed our survey data using a principal component analysis, generalized linear models, and a qualitative coding analysis. The most frequent participants showed a higher likelihood of participation in public environmental behaviors, whereas participants at all frequency levels were also likely to participate in private environmental behaviors, such as removing invasive plants in one's yard. Volunteers across all frequencies of participation were motivated to engage in stewardship events by a desire to help the environment. By understanding volunteers' motivations and linked behaviors, park managers may gain insights about the recruitment, retention, and messaging of volunteers upon whom they may depend to achieve restoration goals. We recommend considering volunteers' motivations and benefits derived from participation in messaging to recruit and retain volunteers. Additionally, park managers should take advantage of educational opportunities linked to stewardship events, such as training programs and chances for volunteer mentorship.

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Die Geschichte des Radfahrens in der Lausitz um 1900 ist noch nicht auserzählt. Regionale Radfahrer-Bünde sind nur ein Aspekt der Mobilitäts- und Sportgeschichte: LRB, OLRB, SRB, DRB, ARU und „Solidarität“ hießen damals die Radfahrer-Bünde, um nur einige zu nennen. Örtliche Radfahrervereine, die Fahrradproduktion, Handel und Reparaturwerkstätten und darüber hinaus die frühe Verbreitung des Fahrrads in der Ober- und Niederlausitz sind Aspekte, die weiter erforscht werden können. Radrennen und Dauerfahrten in der Oberlausitz sind Inhalt des vorliegenden Artikels, der einerseits einen Einstieg in neue Recherchen bietet und andererseits Quellen und Methoden für diese Art der Spurensuche diskutiert. [... aus dem Artikel]

Facing increasingly complex policy issues and diminishing citizen satisfaction with government and service performance, managing the quality of citizen relationship management has become a main challenge for public managers. Solutions to complex policy problems of service performance and low level of citizen participation often must be developed by encouraging citizens to make their voices heard through the various participation mechanisms. Reflecting on this need, the municipal governments in the U.S. have developed centralized customer systems for citizen relationship management. 311 centralized customer system (named 311 in this study) has the functions of citizen-initiated contact, service-coproduction, and transaction, and many local governments launch 311 to maintain or enhance their relationship with the public. Using 311 is an easy and free technically for citizens, but ensuring some degree of citizen engagement and citizens’ 311 use has been challenging for local public managers of municipalities. Despite calls for the importance of 311 in the service and information delivery process, fair treatment and access to use of governmental information, citizen participation, government responsiveness, and citizen satisfaction, to the best of our understanding, no empirical studies explore citizens’ 311 behaviors in the micro and individual level in the field of public administration. This dissertation provides a comprehensive understanding of the 311 centralized customer system, helps local public managers know citizens’ perceived perspectives toward the operation of 311, and assists these managers to develop an effective 311 system in municipalities. The dissertation’s main purpose is to clarify the importance of 311 to citizen relationship management and provide insights into citizens’ 311 use behaviors. More specifically, this dissertation tries to answers the following questions: a. Why do citizens use 311? Do the various groups of the population access and use 311 in San Francisco equally? If not, what factors influence the citizens’ 311 citizen-initiated contact behaviors? b. Why do citizens choose the 311 digital channel to contact with local governments? c. Why do citizens use 311 frequently? This dissertation will address these questions and draws on data from the 2011 citizen survey of City of San Francisco to explore citizens’ 311 use behaviors by examining them from citizens’ perspectives. The main arguments of each question listed above are: 1. 311 citizen-initiated contact is different from traditional citizen-initiated contact, and exposure to governmental-ICT environment, gender, income, and race are the factors influencing 311 citizen-initiated contact. 2. The digital divide, including the social side of the digital divide and access-side of the digital divide, influences citizens’ 311 channel choice. 3. Citizens’ technology acceptance, citizen satisfaction, and frequent use of public services influence the frequency of citizens’ 311 use.

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This research explores the cultural sustainability in the urban development project called Embassy of Sharing in Malmö Hyllie; a future building complex with keywords of sustainability and sharing economy. The research’s focus was on the Department of Culture which has invested in the space to open a new public library, expand its centre for freedom of speech and create meeting spaces for youth. This research investigates the project group’s work towards planning their future operation and how their ideas relate to cultural sustainable development.  The result demonstrates that the Department of Culture does not generally work towards cultural sustainability but allows culture to be subsumed by social sustainability, using culture as a method to fulfil social work. Most informants emphasised citizen dialogue and participation, which are notions of social sustainability that come from internal work with social sustainable development. This result of direction was not surprising based on culture’s role in cultural policies and mainstream political research. However, the Department of Culture’s intended activities in their space at the Embassy of Sharing does not exclude the potential to achieve cultural sustainability. Concepts of place-shifting and participatory planning can be used to highlight how the Department of Culture’s methods can be re-evaluated towards being more inclusive, such as including citizens in earlier phases in the planning process, as well as re-grounding Hyllie from being only commercialised to a place with cultural access. The concept of spaces of possibility invites an entirely new creative framework for how the Department of Culture can establish its work more related to the cultural discourse, rather than doing social work.  Since the project is only in its planning phase there are no finished results to investigate. Instead, this study investigates the formation of cultural values in its movements. Thinking in terms of cultural sustainable development in the planning process of a project may strengthen the chances of achieving something valuable from the start. Further research will have to explore the use of the Department of Culture’s future operation and what role culture will play in the finalised building complex of the Embassy of Sharing.

In every society, the reality of collective decision-making falls short of the democratic ideals in several ways. Yet there is a continuous focus on enhancing and adopting democratic practices through a stronger connection between citizens and public officials. One approach, towards improving democratic practises, which have gained a lot of popularity in recent years, is the incorporation of temporary use in the city. This approach to planning is something that this thesis has work towards understanding. As a means of research this phenomenon, this thesis has investigated a new redevelopment tool at Malmö municipality, known as “intermediate use”.  This thesis has investigated and evaluated this approach to planning and have done so by conduction case studies on the only current two project that utilizes this intermediate use as a method in the city. The projects at hand are: Skeppsbrokajen, a redevelopment project in the early stage of developing Malmö’s “new” city district Nyhamnen and is a project which aims to draw attention as well as establish the foundation for a green quay-walking lane that the municipality envisions for the future. The second case is Naturmolnet, a redevelopment projects located at Sofielund, a district that historically have a bad reputation and is undergoing a repurposing/rebranding phase which Naturmolnet is a part of. The case studies of these projects have been complimented by observations, interviews, and document studies, all in order to gain as deep understanding of the cases as possible. As a theoretical background a critical urban theory has been adopted, meaning that both strength and weaknesses of the investigated cases have been brought up as well as the thesis keeping an underlying strive for everyone right to the city. This thesis has utilized a theoretical structure consisting of temporality and its many implications. Accompanying this, an understanding of communication through the concept of citizen participation and the concept of public space and everyone’s right to it has been discussed. These ideas have finally been used in conjunction with each other in order to create a theoretical framework that this thesis have utilized as a tool to evaluate the democratic potential of the investigated cases. The result of the study showed that even though the intentions of these projects are similar, the outcome of what they have achieved during their time are vastly different. Naturmolnet have managed to create a successful democratic urban space that could be likened to a “bottom-up” approach to planning. Skeppsbrokajen on the other hand, have not been as successful in this endeavour, much due to the pandemic, and the planning here is more in line with the more classical “top-down” approach to planning.

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