This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the indigenous management of geographically diverse small-scale agricultural production environments in Africa by investigating the effects of customary land allocation on the use of the land and sustainable agricultural development in Swaziland. This study addresses two questions: (a) to what extent has the heterogeneity of the natural environment been considered in the allocation of land for agricultural purposes; and (b) what are the implications of the existing land allocation system and current land allocation pattern on the development and sustainability of agricultural land use. The study focuses on semi-arid land. The land allocation efficiency is determined by comparing the spatial heterogeneity of the land with the pattern of land allocation. The analysis is carried out at a sub-regional scale, and a local scale in twelve study areas. Changes over time are studied by comparing current land allocation patterns with those at Independence (1968). This study has identified two apparent weaknesses in the customary land management system. The frrst is in the capacity to ensure an efficient land resource distribution at a subregional level. The second is in the ability to ensure consistent land allocation practices at a local level. The study provides evidence that these shortcomings are now affecting the production environment and opportunities for development, and that changes in the tenure system are required. The study findings partly support a recent land po licy initiative proposing a gradual devolution in land management responsibilities to local level management systems, but also raise two major concerns. First, the land policy initiative does not address the shortcomings in sub-regional land management. Second, the inconsistent land distribution found at a local level does not support the notion that devolution will necessarily lead to more sustainable levels of land use within communities. In the wider debate on the agrarian transformation in Africa, this study adds to the body of knowledge in identifying specific shortcomings of indigenous management systems in land distribution, and their effects on sustainable agricultural development and land management. The study thus extends the more critical strand of thought on the role of local and indigenous land management systems in this process, and thus on the effectiveness of the devolution of resource management to community levels. The study also demonstrates that land sufficiency and quality are important issues in the process of sustainable intensification in small-scale land use systems, and question the wider applicability of the optimistic development model, which is primarily based on economic considerations. Lastly, the fmdings support the critical view on the applicability of the evolutionary theory of land rights in conditions similar to those in Swaziland. The fmdings of this study confIrm the importance of considering spatial scale and diversity in land use related studies, and show that any inference from one level of scale to another can be highly misleading.

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This research explores the role of trust in relation to how the quality of care provided by the Humber Mental Health NHS Teaching Trust (HMHTT) is perceived by stakeholders.A Participatory Action Research Project (PAR) was carried out within an overarching framework of Critical Systems Thinking (CST), using a modified form of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) (Checkland and Scholes, 1990; Checkland and Poulter, 2006) to structure the process of gathering information regarding perceptions of service quality, communication among stakeholders as individuals and groups, and trust in the system and thinking critically and creatively about the issues raised. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 14 service users, 5 carers, 6 service providers, and 3 decision-makers, to build up a rich picture of the situation, and workshops were held to identify and model relevant systems and generate proposals for change.Root definitions and conceptual models were generated by service users and carers for two activity systems identified by them as priorities for attention: Communication and Carer Involvement, and forwarded to service providers for feedback. The issues raised were carried forward to the Trust's planning and budgeting agenda, and were disseminated more widely within the Trust, to inform subsequent action.The research contributes to theory on relational quality by providing rich data and conceptual models on the complex interrelationships between trust, communcation and perceived quality and points to the value of explicit incorporation of trust in CST theory and practice.

Some critics of studies of innovation in organizations suggest that the process of innovation needs to receive more attention. They imply that a process study, as opposed to a survey type research, can offer a deeper insight into the nature of that process. The objective of this study is to enhance our understanding of the process of innovation. For this purpose, a relatively in-depth study of an attempt at innovation in a higher education setting in Iran is undertaken. This research consists of four parts. In Part One, innovation is viewed from a theoretical perspective. Part Two is devoted to the description of the case. Part Three covers the analysis of the case. Part Four comprises the implications of the study for theory and practice as well as a research agenda. Derived from a single case study, the findings can be regarded as indicating hypotheses to other students of innovation. These findings that: (a).Irrespective of its manifestation, innovation is driven by its essence, which is abstract. (b).A process of innovation has two sides: on the surface it is linear and, like an organizational chart, is static; but it is iterative and sine linear under the surface. It is dynamic like the reality of organization. (c).It will be misleading to distinguish between the administrative and technical as a way of accounting for the possible differential impacts of some variables on strategic innovations. (d).Different aspects of the same elements may affect either the initiation or the implementation of an innovation. (e).More attention has to be paid to the relationship between group variables as well as organizational fairness, or equity, and innovation.

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