Complete Issue (1.88MB)

Abstract

Alison BrownSchool of City and Regional Planning Cardiff UniversityClimate change, sustainability, diversity, financial probity, gender and governance are profound and complex challenges facing local government today, and are all topics raised by the researchers and practitioners contributing to CJLG Issue 10. Cash-strapped local governments are required to deliver core services ('roads, rates and rubbish' as HeatherZeppel's interviewee said), yet are increasingly required to embrace broad social inclusion and environmental concerns, as our contributors show.The five research papers in this issue touch at the heart of equity and democratic governance. The role of critical theory in delivering good practice is explored by Eris Schoburgh in her reflection on local government and local development, and her comparison of Trinidad & Tobago's structured decentralisation and Jamaica's communitarian approach.She dismisses the 'leading laggard' model where linked settlement economies sink or swim together, and the 'learning region' which maximise local synergies to promote economic growth, to propose a new 'hybrid model' of local growth that tackles on-going issues such as gender equality, the informal economy and the local commons.In Canada's federal system with 13 provinces, and over 3,600 municipalities, dealing with diversity is a major challenge. John Martin, Gary Paget and Brian Walisser highlight the problems of capacity in rural administrations covering vast areas and diverse communities, and argue the need to strengthen capacity and innovation. There is no universal local government system in Canada, and each province varies in its approach, so the Symposium the previous pro-development administration, the new council focused on community and green politics, e.g.: social welfare for (aboriginal) island communities; council meetings were no longer like an auction, and councillors 'talked things out'. Yet, Hilde concluded that it was the community orientation rather than the women's platform that led the agendas, and that women's contribution is strongly contingent.Heather Zeppel explores how local governments tackle climate change in her survey of the carbon mitigation measures taken by 14 Greater Adelaide councils. All had faced environmental challenges of drought, heat waves, flooding, bush fires or coastal erosion, butwere tackling the issues with innovation and verve, acting strategically to provide leadership in climate change adaptation planning and raising community awareness, and internally to reduce their own carbon emissions. Interestingly she notes that street lighting is one of the largest contributors to local government carbon emissions.Transparent and effective management of local government finance is crucial to underpin democratic governance, argues Umar Kakumba in his study in Uganda of the agencies that audit and inspect local government. He suggests that, instead of blaming local councils for inefficiencies, it is also necessary to 'audit the auditors'. He found the agencies plagued by staffin...