Barriers to Involvement: the Disconnected Worlds of Disability and Regeneration

Disabled people are noticeably absent from the government's regeneration agenda, despite its current emphasis on empowering and involving local communities in urban renewal. This paper explores some of the barriers to disabled people's involvement in regeneration initiatives at the local level, focusing particularly on the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB). Interviews with regeneration managers, local authority officers, disabled people and disability groups identified a range of barriers. These included a lack of strategic recognition that disabled people were 'relevant' to regeneration, difficulties with the SRB's centrally-prescribed outputs and timescales, a lack of accessible information for disabled people, and circumscribed local political networks which served to marginalize certain disability groups from local regeneration processes. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which some of these barriers might be addessed.     

一季度增长稍有放缓中国经济硬着陆风险加大

【台湾《全球观察》4月16日】一季度增长速度稍有放缓 中国经济在第一季度失去了一些动力，但增长率仍然超过预期。国家统计局公布的数据显示，GDP增长10．6％，比去年第四季度的11．2％有所放缓。这意味着中国经济实现了连续第9个季度的两位数增长。此前普遍的市场预期是，增长率将显著放缓到10．0％左右。     

The Role of Interested Groups in England's Emerging Tourism Policy Network

The role of interested groups within English tourism policy development has increased considerably in recent years. There are several possible explanations for this, including changing government policy styles, the perception of the importance of tourism to the national economy, and the developing sophistication of a tourism policy network. This paper reviews the role of interested groups and the nature of tourism policy development in England within the context of a theoretical discussion on public policy analysis, policy styles and policy networks. It specifically reports on the relationship between the tourism interest groups and government, and the mechanisms used by them to influence policy development. The paper shows that the tourism policy network can be characterised as immature. It has government at its centre directing strategic policy, with two sub-networks concentrating on the detail of commercial tourism and tourism resource policy. Within these sub-networks are dominant and secondary players defined as such by the manner in which they use their resources, gain access to decision-makers, collaborate with like-minded groups and work with government bureaucracy.     

Innovating SMEs and Regions: The Need for Policy Intelligence and Interactive Policies

Based on the empirical findings achieved through comparative research involving 40 innovation policy instruments from 11 European regions, this paper proposes a shift in rationale and in the broad orientations of innovation policy to focus on addressing SMEs in their regional context. The main role for innovation policy, which aims to increase the capacity of a region and the capabilities of its SMEs to innovate, is to foster interactive learning within the firms and within the region. This calls for an interactive mode of policy intervention. The paper deals also with the question of how to build a coherent portfolio of policy instruments, taking into account both regional situations and specific SMEs needs in terms of innovation. The key message is that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' policy portfolio. Regional differences in innovation capabilities call for a tailored mix of policy instruments. One salient element of the conclusion is the need for more 'policy intelligence' in this complex field.