PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
"Michael Haus is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Political Science at Darmstadt University of Technology. His current research focuses on the institutional design of local government in a comparative perspective. Recent publications include: *Bürgergesellschaft, soziales Kapital und lokale Politik, Leske & Budrich: Opladen 2002 (editor). Hubert Heinelt is Professor of Public Administration/Public Policy and Urban Studies at the Institute for Political Science at Darmstadt University of Technology. His current research focuses on local policy and politics and European integration and EU cohesion policy, as well as on issues of participatory governance. He is co-chair of the study group ""Lokale Politikforschung"" of the German Political Science Association (DVPW), a member of the executive board of the European Urban Research Association (EURA), as well as co- of the series Gesellschaftspolitik und Staatstätigkeit of Leske & Budrich, Opladen. His recent publications include: *Brennpunkt Stadt. Stadtpolitik und lokale Politikforschung in den 80er und 90er Jahren (Stadtforschung aktuell 31), Birkhäuser: Basel/Boston/Berlin 1991 (editor, together with Hellmut Wollmann) *Politik in europäischen Städten. Fallstudien zur Bedeutung lokaler Politik (Stadtforschung aktuell 38), Birkhäuser: Basel/Boston/Berlin 1993 (editor, together with Margit Mayer) *Policy Networks and European Structural Funds. A Comparison between Member States, Avebury: London 1996 (together with Randall Smith) *Zivile Gesellschaft. Entwicklung, Defizite und Potentiale, Leske & Budrich: Opladen 1997 (together with Klaus M. Schmals) Murray Stewart is Reader at the University of the West of England, Bristol and was Director of the Cities research centre at the University of the West of England, Bristol 1997-2002. His current research activities include participation in the national evaluations of the New Deal for Communities and of Local Strategic Partnerships. He was a member of the Social Exclusion Unit PAT 17 Policy Action Team, (Joining It Up Locally), and is the academic member of the Regional Co-ordination Unit Advisory Group. He is Deputy Chairman (and South West Trustee) of the Lloyds/TSB Foundation for England and Wales. Recent publications include: *Cross-cutting Issues affecting Local Government, London: Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1999 *Community Leadership in Area Regeneration, JRF Report, Bristol: The Policy Press 2000 *Understanding Collaboration : International perspectives on Theory, Method and Practice. Proceedings of an International Conference, Bristol 2000 (with D. Purdue) *Globalism and Local Democracy (ed. with R. Hambleton and H. Savitch.)"
The PLUS collaborators have set a new benchmark for cross-national research in this crucial arena of governance. Researchers in a wide range of relevant fields, from political economy to social policy to the study of civic life, will benefit from close scrutiny of the empirical findings of this project. Although the pluralistic approach of the authors leaves it largely for the reader to draw synthetic conclusions, the overall picture is one of convergent trends across advanced industrial democracies as well as among newer democracies in southern and eastern Europe. At a more general level, the findings underscore the importance of state-society relations and culture within cities as an important element in trajectories of governance worldwide. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 2008 (pp. 297-308).
