<p>The study introduces and puts forward Sector Policing as a model to expand Community Policing and to broaden the scope of crime prevention. It also demonstrates how Sector Policing can be utilised to decentralise policing and deepen community participation.</p>

<p>Ethiopia is exercising decentralisation of the health system and thus this study assesses lessons learned about the experiences of the decentralization of institutions in heoretical terms. The problem investigated in this study concerns the lack of institutional capacity to effectively provide services, lack of transparency, responsibility and accountability. Decision making is also very remote from the people with regard to resource allocation and public health service delivery. The scope of this study covers the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People&rsquo / s Regional State of Ethiopia and its relationship with the Cheha District in the area of health service decentralization. The objective of this study was to identify fundamental elements of decentralization of health institutions and the impact on the performance of the health system at local government level in the Cheha District in Ethiopia.</p>

<p>This research endeavours to identify existing participatory structures and explore the role of local government officials, community representatives and other role players in the housing delivery process in Joe Slovo / indicate opportunities for the participation of beneficiaries in the housing process as well as the extent and nature of community engagement / highlight existing barriers to effective community participation and other problems related to housing delivery in Joe Slovo / draw general conclusions within the framework of the government&rsquo / s housing policy / and provide recommendations to policy makers, urban planners and other stakeholders. Consequently, this research employs qualitative methodological tools as they are most appropriate in the collection of this type of data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local officials, and observations were used to gather critical information. In addition, secondary data, with a special focus on newspaper articles, were used.</p>

Community-based tourism (CBT) has become an important facet in the quest for sustainable tourism. CBT is a term that has been subjected to different interpretations in the academic literature. In the field, CBT continues to be supported as an approach to improve the livelihoods of local people in communities participating in tourism. With growing interest in the sustainable livelihoods approach to development, tourism researchers have begun to examine tourism as a livelihood strategy. However, there remain few case studies that have connected the sustainable livelihoods approach and tourism. More specifically, there is limited empirical evidence exploring community-based tourism as a livelihood strategy for rural communities. This research employed an exploratory mixed methods approach to investigate community-based tourism from a livelihoods perspective. The case of the Commonwealth of Dominica was examined to address the following objectives: i) to assess the approach to the development of community-based tourism on the island of Dominica; ii) to analyze residents’ perceptions of the impacts that tourism has on their community from a livelihoods perspective; and iii) to evaluate the degree of success (or failure) of community-based tourism development in Dominica. The research findings revealed that community-based tourism is a valued component of Dominica’s national tourism strategy. Since the early nineties, community involvement has been an implicit policy in the tourism development process. More recently, government-funded initiatives have provided assistance to communities across the island to develop, implement, and market community tourism products. Additionally, this research suggests that the livelihood asset pentagon presented in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism (Shen, Hughey, and Simmons, 2008) is an effective organizational tool for assessing the impact of tourism on communities. Future research should be directed at applying the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism in more diverse contexts to ensure its validity and applicability. Furthermore, there is a need to develop a comprehensive Community-based Tourism Framework to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of community-based tourism projects in the field. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that the island of Dominica is on a successful path for developing community-based tourism and it has the potential to yield a number of ‘best practice’ scenarios for the Caribbean region and the globe a like.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of community involvement on management of water tanks in the Arkavathi sub-basin in the state of Karnataka, South India. Water management was analysed from a socio-environmental perspective, with emphasis on village-level stakeholders’ roles and perceived responsibility. The efficiency of community participation was investigated by comparing two villages having undergone the same World Bank launched program to restore water bodies traditionally used to sustain the livelihood of the rural population. In one village there was a resistance towards how the implementation of the tank rejuvenation project had been performed, in the other there was no local involvement. A minor field study was conducted by visiting the two villages. Qualitative interviews were held with village-level stakeholders of three age groups, to analyse changes over time in knowledge and attitudes. Additionally, ocular observation and photo documentation were made of the study areas. Some informal interviews were carried out with members of an external non-governmental organisation and locals in the study villages. The collected data were analysed by comparing the results for the two villages, as well as the results of the different age groups and genders. There were significant differences in awareness and sense of responsibility, but not knowledge, between the two villages. In the village with a community involvement resisting the governmental scheme for tank renovation, this involvement had proved to be of some advantage to the local community. Contrary to the guidelines, the governmental implementation of the water management strategy did not include local stakeholders’ participation, nor were the tanks restored. Overall, the villagers considered the tank management to be the responsibility of external authorities. There were generally no significant differences between the age groups or men and women, though there were indications of a lower level of knowledge and awareness in women. Absence of effective institutions for water management on all levels as well as difficulties in mainatining efficient village level leadership for community participation are factors causing a major gap between planning and implementation.

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The origin of festivals in Taiwan comes from the concept of ¡§community infrastructure establishment¡¨ launched by Council for Culture Affairs in 1994. ¡§Community infrastructure establishment¡¨ takes communities as target and live them up by arts and culture events in order to promote their culture industries. This concept also draws a blueprint of various kinds of festivals or activities at different time around the whole island. Arts and culture events which combine local histories, culture, industries and tourism not only revitalize local industries but also level up the entire social environment. Further more, the model of international communication and ¡§Community infrastructure establishment¡¨ will become reality through promoting such events. However, the qualities of culture events held in Taiwan these years declined due to their fancy outward displays with poor inward statements. Such phenomena reflect the rough decision-marking process and no interaction with communities. When the financial supports from government shrink year after year, what should we do to take the challenges from long-term operation of festivals as well as culture events? This case study focuses on the project of ¡§Dream Parade¡¨ in Hsichih, Taipei county, and compare it with the ¡§Fremont Solstice Parade¡¨ in U.S., ¡§Hsinkang International Community Festival¡¨ in Chayi county, and ¡§Utopia¡¨ in Taichung city. Through analyzing these three cases, we can find two major characteristics that make the ¡§Dream Parade¡¨ an adaptable model. First, it follows the concept of ¡§Community infrastructure establishment¡¨ and accomplishes it by stepping in community with arts and culture as well as developing an interface for all residences. Second, the administration from enterprises takes place of government fund and takes the leading role to enlarge community participation. The researcher of this study also participated in the project of ¡§Dream Parade¡¨ as program specialist and tried to set up a model for running international festivals associates with local communities. The actual experience derives the following conclusion: tracing back to the original meaning of ¡§community¡¨ and regarding communities as the most important part of the model mentioned above, the operation of festivals will truly become the way to connect the international society.

During the process of community empowerment, resident participation has always played a significant role. Issues such as how to enhance residents¡¦ intention to get involved in community activities are consistently taken into discussion. Previous studies have revealed that community participation can be carried out by the integration of community awareness. However, most of these studies were generally focused on the exploration of inducement and strategy, rarely examining from the perspective of psychological decision-making factors such as behavior model, changing factors and efficacy. Therefore, the purpose of the study is: first, to understand the relationship between Sense of Community and Social Capital; second, to testify the influence of Sense of Community on Collective Efficacy and Self-efficacy; third, to explore the impact of Social Capital on the perspective of Theory of Planned Behavior; finally, to combine the related perspectives from Sense of Community, Social Capital, Social Cognition and Theory of Planned Behavior to develop residents community participation behavior model. The research variables of the study include Sense of Community, Norm Value, Neighborhood Interaction, Trust, Collective Efficacy, Self-Efficacy, Subject Norm, Attitude, Behavioral Intention and Community Participation. The research objects of 572 valid samples are community residents from 10 community development associations in Kaohsiung City. Questionnaires were collected and analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine and explain each variable that influence residents¡¦ intention to participate in community. The results indicated that all the 11 assumptions present positive correlations. It is found that the Sense of Community presents great impact on Collective Efficacy, Norm Value and Neighborhood Interaction. Collective Efficacy also has strong influence on Self-Efficacy and Attitude. The result of the study based on the theories of Sense of Community, Social Capital, Social Cognitive Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavioral is considered as acceptable model as the development of resident community participation model reaches ideal standard on the index of Mean Root Square Error of Approximation (MRSEA). The research not only fulfills the purpose of study, but also provides concrete strategies for further studies. It also presents positive effect for Self-Efficacy and Collective Efficacy application on Social Cognitive Theory.

With the rapid growth of virtual communities, more and more group-buying are now held within the communities. However, no study discusses the effect of virtual communities on group-buying. Comparing to other transaction modes, it is easier for consumers to aggregate their demands in virtual communities. The coherence and trust among community members, at the same time, further reduce potential risks in transactions. This study aims to understand factors that affect consumer intentions to join group-buying within the virtual communities and to develop a comprehensive framework. The results indicate that perceived trust in group-buying initiator and perceived trust in other community members are the main factors that influence consumers¡¦ intention to join. Their perceived risk, at the same, has no significant effect. Furthermore, consumers¡¦ involvement in the virtual community has the most effect on their perceived trust in initiators while their perceived trust in other members and the perceived expertise of the initiator are also critical factors. The results implies that the trust among members, which is resulted from their intense interactions, is the key factor of group-buying. The expertise of initiator, meanwhile, is not the critical determinant of group-buying.

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2006.