Political Divide, Weak Property Rights, and Infrastructure Provision: An Empirical Examination of Takings Decisions in Jerusalem

In this article I use a unique hand-coded dataset of all expropriation exercises in Jerusalem over a twenty-five-year period to test the distribution of the expropriation burden across political communities. I identify the ethnoreligious group to which the impacted landowner belongs and the community that would benefit from the decision. I find that Palestinian property constitutes 38 percent of all land taken over the years, while only 10 percent of all land taken has been repurposed for their local community needs. Conversely, Jewish owners have contributed only 4 percent of all land taken while benefiting from 33 percent of the land taken for their community needs. I also find that land not owned by Jews has a higher propensity to be taken for citywide purposes by ten to twenty-three times than Jewish land, depending on the purpose and the type of property rights involved. This sharp gap can be attributed to the political power relations in the city. The case study enables me to test the relationship between weak property rights and infrastructure provision. As property rights are formally recorded and recognized selectively in some but not in all parts of the city, the article provides the first empirical evidence to the effect of weak property rights on the risk of expropriation. I find that the propensity for noncommunity purpose takings of nonformalized land for which Palestinians claim ownership but have no official records to is significantly higher when compared to formalized Palestinian land. This outcome contradicts the conventional wisdom in the literature that weak property rights help explain limited infrastructure development.

Identifikasi Keragaman Penyediaan Sarana Prasarana pada Perumahan Peri-Urban Kabupaten Sleman

Title: Diversity Identification of Infrastructure Provision in Peri-Urban Housing Sleman Regency The procurement of housing infrastructure has been regulated through SNI 03-1733-2004. However, in the field, developers have their own considerations and creativity in providing them. The diversity of provision raises the problem of equal public access to infrastructure. This study aims to identify the diversity of housing infrastructure provision in Sleman Regency. The research used deductive-qualitative method. The analysis was carried out through the stages of data grouping, housing type analysis, analysis of infrastructure availability and comparative analysis. The results showed different provision between small-scale and medium-scale housing. Basic infrastructure is the top priority and security infrastructure is the second priority. Variations are found in amenities and health facilities and the least provided are religious and educational facilities.

Small island settlement planning in Panggang island, DKI Jakarta

Despite the fact that North Jakarta has been prompted as the new frontier of development with megaprojects, artificial islands, and large-scale infrastructures, little attention is paid to the development of small islands in Kepulauan Seribu, north of Jakarta, focused on Panggang island, one of the inhabited islands in Kepulauan Seribu, among Indonesia’s densest islands. There were the three challenges to the urbanization of small islands in the Jakarta megaregion, including: population growth, land availability and reclamation, and essential infrastructure provision. Through a participatory workshop with local authorities and communities, this paper proposed a model of sustainable settlement planning in Panggang Island, based on housing need assessment and spatial structure improvement to ensure the future settlement sustainability in Panggang island. To conclude, this paper critically reflects on the engagement process with local communities and the challenges in actualizing the settlement planning proposal in Pulau Pangang.

Review of Literature on Subnational Government Borrowing

Chapter 3 establishes the rationale for subnational government debt, the infrastructure pressures on subnational governments, and the context within which subnational government borrowing occurs. It begins with a review of the fiscal governance task in the face of demands for local infrastructure provision, and the institutional contexts of subnational government borrowing. The chapter then discusses how subnational government infrastructure provision and borrowing fit with a growing perspective of financial governance innovations. It continues with an introduction to capital-financing options, an overview of subnational government borrowing, and potential problems with subnational government borrowing. Then, the chapter explores fundamental dimensions of institutional contexts that affect subnational government borrowing. It ends by explicitly recognizing the role of information and setting a research agenda about efforts to improve information resolution institutions and mechanisms for information certification and monitoring.

Precaution and Innovation in the Context of Wastewater Regulation: An Examination of Financial Innovation under UWWTD Disputes in London and Milan

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) under the guidance of the precautionary principle sets out standards to guarantee high quality water services for European citizens. This creates pressure on European cities to update and renew their water infrastructures in accordance with EU Law at great financial cost. Cities within the Union try to bridge this financial gap with a variety of approaches. This paper presents the cases of London and Milan, both of which were subject to legal proceedings for breaching the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. By example of these two cases, this article details how the precautionary principle affects urban water infrastructure provision, and how the regulation of the primary risk of pollution can both trigger innovation and create secondary risks within the highly integrated urban water infrastructure sector. The London case focusses on an individual infrastructure project and shows how its financial framing has compromised the final outcome, while the Milan case presents a longer-view perspective that shows how structural changes in the urban water infrastructure sector have enabled an environment for sustainable financial innovation. The role of transparency and good local governance practices are emphasized for a successful implementation of the precautionary principle requirements in a city’s water sector. Managing this process effectively can result in meaningful social innovation for urban water infrastructure provision.

Bridging the urban–rural gap in facilitating Local Economic Development: The case study of uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu–Natal, South Africa

Municipalities are faced with poverty, unemployment and inequality, to the detriment of growth and development. As specified in the South African Constitution (1996), municipalities are obligated to advance Local Economic Development (LED). Municipalities cannot accomplish this task alone; therefore, participation of all stakeholders is required. The aim of this study is to investigate bridging the urban–rural gap in facilitating LED within uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu–Natal in understanding this phenomenon. The district is made up of seven urban and rural local municipalities. Using a qualitative research method through an interpretive paradigm, data were collected from purposely selected participants through in-depth open-ended interviews. Collected data were analysed through induction using thematic and content analysis. Results revealed gaps in understanding LED planning, facilitation and implementation, including gaps in resource planning and provision. The study revealed numerous stakeholders were relevant in facilitating LED within the District. It is recommended that the District improves rural service delivery and infrastructure provision enabling access of opportunities and creating platforms for stakeholder engagement, with inclusion of traditional leaders driving LED facilitation. Priority areas for enhancing LED initiatives are suggested, with LED viewed as a good initiative in achieving sustainable development in district municipalities.

Online Learning in the Context of Pandemic in Russia

The urgent transfer of education in Russia to a distance format in the context of a pandemic has significant differences from a properly planned online learning based on wide-scale open online courses. Educational organizations that are forced to work with students remotely in order to reduce the risks of the spread of coronavirus should be aware of this difference when assessing the effectiveness of so-called "online learning" using distance learning technologies. Such a drastic measure was forced and urgent. Not all universities were ready for this radical restructuring of the educational process based on objectively different levels of development of information infrastructure, provision of disciplines with electronic educational resources, and readiness of teachers to use digital platforms and services in the educational process. This article analyzes the capabilities of online educational platforms and the opinions of students and teachers, who teach and study online in conditions of the pandemic.