Browsing by Author "Guarneros-Meza, Valeria"
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Item Embargo Administrative traditions and citizen participation in public policy: a comparative study of France, Germany, the UK and Norway(Ingenta Connect, 2015) Huxley, Katy; Andrews, Rhys; Downe, J.; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaThe participation of citizens in public policy-making has become a key aim for national and supranational institutions across Europe, but the relative importance policy-makers actually accord citizen participation arguably varies due to the alternative administrative traditions within different countries. Using data drawn from a large-scale survey of senior public managers in France, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway, we find support for the idea that administrative tradition influences the participation of citizens in public policy. We also identify key institutional factors determining the importance of citizen participation. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.Item Metadata only Boundary Spanning in Local Service Partnerships:Coachers, Advocates or Enforcers?(Taylor and Francis, 2014-10-15) Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Martin, SteveThis paper analyses the role of senior civil servants who work directly with local public service partnerships in the UK. It finds that their activities are welcomed by local actors and can have a positive impact on partnership working. They add value by acting as coaches who bring new ideas and help to build trust among local agencies and as advocates through being an important channel of communication between partnerships and national government. However, they struggle to facilitate more joined up working among national government departments whose differentiated regulatory and funding procedures impede attempts to collaborate at a local level.Item Open Access Citizen security in Mexico: Examining municipal bureaucracy from the view of the intermediation-representation debate(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017-05) Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaThe chapter examines citizen security in a south-eastern municipality in Mexico through the role of municipal front-line bureaucrats. The argument highlights that the degree of discretion of bureaucrats, the unequal power relations that they have in relation to citizen-users and their contribution to policy-making through service provision are characteristics that overlap with the three key dimensions of political intermediation addressed by the book. Bureaucrats make sense of their legitimacy (‘recognition dimension’); they negotiate with citizens to legitimize their job which is devalued in contexts of low levels of trust, corruption and violence (‘constraint dimension’); and they minimize conflict arisen from citizens’ attempts to achieve better quality of life (‘substantive-representation dimension’). With focus on the bureaucrat, juxtaposition is found between service implementation and electoral representation.Item Metadata only Conclusions and future research agenda(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) Zaremberg, Gisela; Gurza Lavalle, Adrián; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaItem Metadata only Contracting for social cohesion: Can local area agreements make a difference?(Policy Press, 2014-10) Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Andrews, Rhys; Downe, J.Item Open Access Conversando con Goliat. Participación, movilización y represión en torno a conflictos neoextractivistas y ambientales [Conversing with Goliath: Partcipation , mobilization and repression in neoextractivist and environmental conflicts](FLACSO, DMU, CIESAS-CCIUDADANO, 2019-01-10) Zaremberg, Gisela; Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Gallardo Robles, Lourdes; Ortuno Martinez, IvonneThis working paper/report provides the initial findings of the first phase of the project entitled 'Conversing with Goliath', funded by the British Academy (2017-2020). The findings are mostly based on a legal analysis of extractive projects in Mexico which underline the participatory institutions this legal framework contains. The report also presents information of 40 in-depth interviews conducted to government officials, NGOs and academics with knowledge about the extractive sector in the country and results of a national survey of experts on the topic from the private, public and third sectors. The report presents a summary of the existing participative institutions, their limitations and challenges in the implementation of the extractive regulation. The findings underline the lack of coordination between different tiers of government and their agencies and the historical problems that have characterised weak participation in Mexico.Item Open Access Defining, achieving, and evaluating collaborative outcomes: a theory of change approach(Taylor and Francis, 2017-10-02) Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Downe, James; Martin, SteveGovernments have repeatedly claimed that collaboration improves public service outcomes. However, defining, achieving and evaluating collaborative outcomes is often problematic. Analysis of multi-sectoral projects in Wales, which were supported by the European Social Fund, exemplifies these challenges. Shifts in policy discourses and the interplay between national and local agendas produced complex and contested understandings of outcomes which made difficult to evaluate the projects’ achievements. We argue that the pursuit of collaboration needs to be understood not simply as an attempt to improve public service effectiveness but also ‘cultural efficacy’. The conclusions offer reflections relevant for theory and practice.Item Open Access Descrifrando el desorden: instituciones participativas y conflictos en torno a megaproyectos en México(America Latina Hoy, 2018) Zaremberg, Gisela; Wong Torres, Marcela; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaThis article offers a map of «participatory institutions» (PI) that appear in conflict scenarios related to mining, hydrocarbons, wind and hydroelectric energy megaprojects in Mexico. The authors offer evidence of the existing gap between the implementation and the legal framework that regulates PI. Additionally, the authors suggest three possible outcomes pursued by the main actors involved in conflicts over megaprojects, which involve suboptimal exchanges: 1) preventing megaprojects, 2) decreasing violence and 3) obtaining pecuniary benefits towards the communities affected by megaprojects.Item Open Access The Everyday Local State? Opening up and closing down informality in local governance(Taylor and Francis, 2019-05-30) Pill, Madeleine; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaItem Open Access Governance, participation and hegemony: governing Cananea and the Río Sonora Region(Sage, 2021-09-01) Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaBy building upon critical debates on ‘network governance’ in policy-making, while finding complementarities with debates on corporate social responsibility in Mexican mining, the paper argues that in the (mis)management of information and implementation of participatory mechanisms, ‘administrative domination’ is found through the relationships held between government authorities and the mining corporation. Based on Cananea and the Sonora River Region, Gramscian understandings of hegemony are discussed. However, this approach faces limitations when encountering decentered relations that go beyond state actors. Therefore, Foucauldian debates on governmentality are useful to complement understandings on the nature of power relations in existing governance arrangements.Item Metadata only Governing local partnerships: does external steering help local agencies address wicked problems?(Policy Press, 2014) Martin, Steve; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaItem Metadata only Governing Local Partnerships: Does External Steering Help Local Agencies Address Wicked Problems?(2013) Martin, Steve; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaPartnerships have played an increasingly prominent role in local governance and there has been considerable debate about the impact which self-organising capacity and government intervention have on their effectiveness. This paper examines what kinds of self-steering local public service partnerships require in order to address intractable public policy problems, and whether external steering by government helps or hinders them. It concludes that 'soft steering' by government can be instrumental in establishing and mobilising partnerships. The type of self-steering they deploy depends on the context in which they operate and the kinds of collaborative activities they attempt.Item Metadata only Intermediation and representation in Latin America: actors and roles beyond elections.(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) Zaremberg, Gisela; Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Gurza Lavalle, AdriánItem Metadata only Introduction: beyond elections: representation circuits and political intermediation.(Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) Zaremberg, Gisela; Gurza Lavalle, Adrián; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaItem Open Access The Jewel of the Crown: Co-optative capacity during austerity in Cardiff and San Sebastian-Donostia(2017-06) Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Telleria, Imanol; Blas, Asier; Pill, MadeleineBy comparing Cardiff and San Sebastián-Donostia (SSD), the paper argues that local governments’ capacity to co-opt provides a relevant approach to understanding changes in citizen participation under fiscal austerity. The argument is based on the close interrelationship among co-optation, legitimacy and procedural regulation. These concepts help to understand how citizen participation is maintained in periods of instability, experienced by city governments during and in the aftermath of the 2010 financial crisis. Local government’s legitimacy is maintained insofar as it shows capacity to co-opt through negotiation, capture, technicalisation of processes and minimisation of conflict. These elements work in tandem with factors of urban austerity embedded into a longer-term neoliberalising discourse (Peck, 2012). Our findings show that both city governments maintain their legitimacy but in this process Cardiff Council’s co-optative capacity weakens in contrast to SSD.Item Open Access The Jewel of the Crown: Co-optive capacity and participation during austerity in Cardiff and San Sebastian-Donostia(Wiley, 2018-11-01) Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Telleria, Imanol; Blas, Asier; Pill, MadeleineBy comparing qualitatively Cardiff and San Sebastián-Donostia (Donostia), the paper argues that local governments’ capacity to co-opt provides a relevant approach to understanding changes in citizen participation under fiscal austerity. The argument is based on the close interrelationship among co-optation, legitimacy and procedural regulation. These concepts help to understand how citizen participation is maintained in periods of instability, experienced by city governments during and in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Local government’s legitimacy is maintained insofar as it shows capacity to co-opt through negotiation, capture, ‘technicalization’ of processes and minimization of conflict. These elements work in tandem with factors of urban austerity embedded into a longer-term neoliberalizing discourse (Peck, 2012). Our findings show that both city governments maintain their legitimacy but in this process Cardiff Council’s co-optive capacity weakens in contrast to Donostia.Item Metadata only The local bureaucrat in the making of urban power(Elsevier, 2014) Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaItem Metadata only Local governance and participation under neoliberalism: comparative perspectives(Blackwell Publishing, 2010) Guarneros-Meza, Valeria; Geddes. M.Item Metadata only Local Governance in Mexico: The Cases of Two Historic-centre Partnerships(Sage, 2008-05) Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaItem Open Access Local governance under austerity: Hybrid organisations and hybrid officers(Policy Press, 2017-07-03) Pill, Madeleine; Guarneros-Meza, ValeriaUsing the case of Cardiff, Wales, we argue that the hybridisation of local governance forms is exacerbated by the downscaling and offloading of austerity politics. Conceptualising hybridity as a process which operates across governmental scales, at the organisational and at the individual level helps understand the growing complexities of local governance under austerity and the tensions which arise in seeking to assemble locally appropriate ideas and practices. Conceptualising hybridity as practice, we consider how ‘hybrid officers’ at the frontline experience austerity, their situated agency, and the implications for higher levels of governance.