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An investigation of improvements to urban services through accountability

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thesis
posted on 2018-09-12, 11:15 authored by Sue Cavill
It has been suggested by academics and practitioners alike that the effectiveness of urban services depends on whether the institutions of service provision are accountable to citizens. This thesis explores the use of accountability arrangements to improve the outputs and sustainability of such urban services as water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, drainage, roads and paving, street lighting and community halls. A multiple case study methodology was adopted for this research. Case studies were selected from UK, South America, Bangladesh and South Korea to provide practical examples of how accountability is applied to the delivery of urban services. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used for data collection. During the research 370 questionnaires were completed, 133 semi structured interviews were conducted, 379 documentary records were reviewed and structured observations were conducted in selected neighbourhoods of the case study locations. The research presents a within-case and cross-case analysis of accountability for urban services. A number of testable propositions for the functioning of accountability were identified from a literature review. For example, the literature suggests that accountability works best when multiple strategies of accountability are used and when there are information symmetries, sanctions and incentives. Moreover, social capital, user voice and answerability to the community are to be encouraged in urban service provision. These propositions have been reassessed in light of the fieldwork and their implications discussed. It was concluded that for the cases studied and potentially for similar situations, accountability arrangements will improve the outputs of urban services, and will improve the relative chances of sustainability, depending on how accountability is used and whether accountability itself can be sustained. Areas of future research are proposed.

History

School

  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Publisher

© Sue Cavill

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2005

Notes

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy at Loughborough University.

Language

  • en

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    Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering Theses

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