This thesis evaluates the current transformation of the concept of public service, which has been reflected as new trends in the domain of the public services, within the context of changes in the role of state and the discipline of public administration that have been experienced under the influence of neo-liberal policies of the post-1980s. In the thesis, the concept of public service, which has been used in reference to administrative law, and dynamics of its transformation have been analyzed from the perspective of public administration discipline. In this regard, besides examining what public service is and its basic features, the connection between the transformation of the concept of public service and new genre of public administration, subsumed under the title of new public management, has been investigated. Throughout the study, the process, in which the transformation has taken place, has been examined in the light of the basic tenets of neo-liberalism, new public management, reinventing government and governance approaches by focusing on their distorting impacts on the public characteristics of the public services.

This thesis examines the &ldquo / unoccupied&rdquo / buildings in Ankara, which are not refunctioned due to the social, political, and economic reasons after 1980s. 1980s can be accepted as the breaking point in the social, economic and political history of Turkey. The significant policy of this period is the privatization of the governmental institutions, which includes the institutions of service, production and also finance. The building stock of privatized institutions is sold or assigned to the other institutions, or demolished. The object of the thesis is the unoccupied buildings in Ankara. The thesis particularly focuses on three of these buildings, which are Emlakbank, S&uuml / merbank and TEKEL Buildings in Ulus. The thesis aims to understand the common points how these buildings become unoccupied. The possessions of Emlakbank, S&uuml / merbank and TEKEL were transferred from the public sector (government) to the private sector (business) after 1980s. Their buildings, which were used as the central administration buildings are still unoccupied. Although they are physically present, their non-presence in terms of function can be considered to be creating &ldquo / voids&rdquo / of the city. For each building, related data is collected. The selected buildings and the institutions, they belonged to, are studied through their limited chronologies (their stories) by the help of the newspapers, interviews, laws, codes and regulations. The collected data helps to analyze the objects as a text, which provides evaluation of the total scene (i.e.the city of Ankara). By thoroughly investigating and discussing unoccupied buildings and their reasons of becoming unoccupied, this study makes an alternative reading of the transformation of Ankara.

This doctoral thesis examines the challenges to co-management in the Tanzania part of Lake Victoria. The study mainly addresses the Nile perch fishery and uses the fishing communities of Bukoba Rural district, Tanzania as a case study. Co-management in Lake Victoria is defined as the sharing of the management responsibilities between the state and the fishing communities. Co-management was adopted in the Lake Victoria fisheries on the understanding that it has the capacity to provide space in which the poor resource users could be empowered to sustainably manage their resource base. The assumption was that the sharing of the management responsibilities between the state and the community of users would have led to equity in resource access, poverty reduction and resource sustainability. Thus, reducing the role of the state and enhancing that of the communities was seen as a solution to the problems of poverty and illegal fishing that are threatening the sustainability of the fishery and the fishers dependent on it. However, in spite of these proclaimed efforts, illegal fishing and poverty in Lake Victoria remain major threats to the long-term sustainability of the fishery, a fact that is raising questions on the efficacy of co-management in Lake Victoria. These questions have particularly focused on the co-management model and the neo-liberal ideals that underlie it, namely decentralization, participation and accountability. The central argument in this thesis, however, is that co-management performance in Lake Victoria is to a large extent shaped by the complex international, national, and local context in which it is implemented and which in turn shapes the problems of poverty and illegal fishing that co-management is supposed to address. The study concludes that the international and national politics behind the Nile perch fishery intersect with the cultural and social context in which the fishery is embedded to shape co-management performance at the local level. For analysis, the study applies a multi-level approach and draws insights from the common pool resources theory, the actor-oriented approach, the entitlement framework, and the theory of the state. Detailed interviews across scale, secondary data, policy documents, and laws, supported by quantitative data are the methods applied.

It is well established that rural regional Australians have borne the brunt of globalization in terms of the adverse impacts caused by social and economic restructuring resulting from global, national and local forces. In response governments and communities have embraced sustainability and civil society for promoting local community action and responsibility for social, economic and environmental issues. This research focuses on community narratives about the social change processes as they engage the forces of neo-liberal policies. Applying a qualitative, grounded theoretical approach to data collection and analysis this study also adopts a multi-perspective, multi-disciplinary framework to gain more holistic, contextual understandings of community functioning and change. In echoing the principles of community psychology, the foundational, multidisciplinary concepts of sense of community, social capital, civil society, empowerment and conscientization have informed understandings of this communitys process and outcome towards transformational change. This study offers a critical reflection of transformational change in an effort to promote more peaceful, collaborate relationships between dominant and oppressed groups in expanding our understandings and solutions for community change. Identified by Newbrough (1992, 1995) as the Third Force Position, the ideals of political community are visibly expressed as they attempt to pursue transformational change towards a just and sustainable future for the community. However, while civil society has made a positive contribution, also apparent are the processes and outcomes which affect those most vulnerable. Those most powerless continue to suffer from exclusion, marginalization and as a result are denied access to vital resources to meet their needs.