General Election ~ 'a new and more volatile chapter'

Voting in the Greek General Election is tomorrow. There’s a polling station in the middle of the village. I hear the sound of politicians talking on people’s televisions as I walk down Democracy Street. On 2 May it was Lefteris’ 70th birthday.

Irini, Kostas, Lefteri and Vasiliki

Lin and I bought greetings and chocolates and sang a universal ‘Happy Birthday to you’. In the background the ignored TV showed politicians speaking from podiums in Q & A sessions with studio audiences. Now and then I followed enough of the chat round the table to know politics was also being discussed in the family.
“No-one knows what will happen” Heads nodded politely when I repeated the widely held opinion that there will be no overall majority and asked, rhetorically, whether any new government would be a coalition, all of whose members will be committed to continuing the current austerity policies. The grim intractability of the picture may explain why the run-up to the Hellenic General Election has felt so quiet, with minimal canvassing, few posters or strewn leaflets. I get more news via phone texts and the web about local elections in the UK, but Teacherdude in Thessaloniki reports to the contrary.

...For many 6th May national elections will mark the end of an era begun in the 70's in which PASOK and New Democracy dominated national politics and promises to usher in a newer, more volatile chapter in public life in Greece...

Here in the village it does seem quiet. The law says voting is compulsory in Greece but as Cinta told me, Greece shares with twelve other countries the habit of not enforcing this. Jim Potts dug out a quote from a chapter on Greece in Cultural Patterns and Technical Change, ed. Margaret Mead (UNESCO 1955)

Government is not personal, and the law is external to the organic, structured whole. It is not the voice of Greece. There is therefore no obligation to obey the law; the guide to conduct here is expediency, and the ability to circumvent.

A low turn-out for polls would be in line with what has happened in local elections in the last couple of years. This is not apathy. Politics is there – but its forms have become a cover for much more that remains unspoken. A plethora of inarticulated apprehensions and passions not yet connected with the exciting organisation of ideas capable of refuting the vice-like hold of the neo-liberal fallacy. It as thought we see the disparate vestiges of an emerging paradigm, held with strong and even happy conviction at the proofs contained in its detailed and diverse manifestations in daily life, in friendship, in talking, writing, gardening, housework and digging across the world, yet arrayed against our disorganised rabble -the fluttering banners of common-sense, faith and normal science. Thus it was between Ptolemaic and Copernican understandings of the cosmos, between Darwin and the bizarre fantasy of special creation. It’s so easy to miss out on inexpressed tensions, hidden even from the self, inside families and friendships, as we know from periodic outbreaks of violence we’ve known in our own part of Birmingham – ‘out of a blue sky’ said the authorities.

Not so. I strive uselessly to make sense of a messy confusing incubation of ideas – some, the worst of the new, others the best of the old, like a human leaving childhood, a gestation whose climax can be predicted, and yet abrupt and unexpected as the breaking of an egg. (See Teacherdude on 'what it takes to be part of the new Greek/EU middleclass')
I asked a friend in the north of the island what he expected in the aftermath of the election.
His reply: 'Chaos'

BBC Radio 4 programmes on Greece

Greece: An Unquiet History (Mar 2012) Writer Maria Margaronis returns home to listen to those living through the Greek disaster - 2

Greece: Broken Marble, Broken Future (Dec 2011) Writer Maria Margaronis returns home to listen to those living through the Greek disaster - 1

Analysis: Preparing for Eurogeddon (Feb 2012) What if Greece had to get a new currency?

Generation E: Far Right Extremists in Greece (Sep 2011)

In Greece, financial meltdown and soaring illegal immigration have led to the rise of young right-wing extremists 

You and Yours: Greek Tourism (Feb 2012)

Winifred Robinson speaks to the Greek Culture and Tourism Minister to find out how the tourist industry in Greece is faring.

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I am excited that we've received conditional permission to place a bee-hive on Plot 14 of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments. Getting permission is not straightforward. Birmingham City Council wants to encourage bees on allotments, having for quite a while prohibited them. I realise, as I did not earlier, that the ‘return of bees’ to urban allotments is fraught with risk-averse considerations. There’s only to be one, let alone two, publicised incidents of negative encounters between bees and the public, and the process of making it normal to allow and indeed encourage beekeeping on allotments will be set back, not to mention the local authority facing litigation from parties inclined to blame them for not protecting the public. I do not, despite the frustrations of getting permissions and removing possible risks and observing probation and being reviewed, consider that council officers are being over-zealous about rules and conditions. This is the price beekeepers within a thoroughly urbanised population must pay for the distancing of so many people of all ages from the details of the cultivation on which we all depend for our food. Everyone knows bees can sting; far fewer know about their vital role in pollination.
Bar Maine, my grandmother, kept bees on Mill End Dairy Farm - where I was born. Many years ago - in the late 1940s - one of her bees got caught in my sister’s hair (she was about 5 or 6) and stung her. I think in curiosity Bay might have wandered rather close to a hive. She naturally screamed in shock and then cried. I was inclined to think ill of bees. Bar came to the rescue, calmed my sister and treated the sting (I think she removed it with tweezers) and told us that the bee who’d stung my sister would now die. I was 7 and I remember even now that my sympathies spread to include the bee (even tho' I now read that idea that a bee's death after it has stung is a 'myth'. It's not automatic) . So it has been since. I am, though, a newcomer to the whole process and the initiative by a friend to use my allotment - encouraged by me - as a hive site, has spurred my interest in the ancient art.

The conditions:

- The bees should be from a new colony, rather than an established one.
 - the beekeeper must have public liability insurance and be a member of the National Bee Keepers Association - No more than one hive can be placed on the plot
- A screen (including insect netting) of around 8ft should be installed a metre away from the boundary of the site alongside the fence. This will also help to shield the bees from unwanted attention from park users, and so ensuring the security of the hive. There is still concern that the bees are rather close to both park users and people working on the site, but the screen should mitigate some of the concerns.
- No bees are to be placed on the plot until the requisite screening has been added to the plot. If you could let your Allotment Liaison Officer know when it has been installed, he will be able to inspect it.
- A risk assessment should be completed by the beekeeper as soon as possible. The Allotment Liaison Officer can advise the tenant of the format of the risk assessment
- The introduction of the bees to be reviewed after this summer in late September, early October.
- Any complaints that the Allotments Team receive will be forwarded to the Victoria Jubilee Allotments Association for action. If any complaints are received, they will form part of the information used as part of the 12 month review.
- An approved bees expert to show where to position the hive on your plot.

With these conditions I was referred to 'a very useful document from NSALG in relation to keeping bees on Allotment sites.' (see also this from the British Beekeepers' Association)

I phoned my neighbour John Rose whose wife Gill, has public liability insurance and is a member of the National Bee Keepers Association. I hope and pray she will be placing her bees on Plot 14 in the very near future. John's already planning the safety netting
"I'll pay you when I see you, John. Brilliant!" We also chatted about local government news. So elected mayors have been voted out everywhere they were proposed except Bristol, though Liverpool went ahead with their Mayor without waiting for a vote.
"I voted against." said John "We are being asked to vote for the post without being told what powers the proposed elected mayors will have."
Nice news that all BNP councillors - sitting and proposed - have disappeared from the local electoral map.
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My friend John Martin - my host and colleague for three lecture tours in Australia - has set out on a Canadian bicycle odyssey, working his way across the continent visiting sustainable communities, research that compares them  them with those in his own Australia and will surely enrich the concept and practice:

We now have our itinerary for the first month worked out. Some people are welcoming, others rather pedestrian in their response. I guess we are the ones who are excited, why should they be. My colleague at U Concordia Bill Reimer - whom you would get on superbly with - is very good smoothing the way forward for us. He has bought an old car and in June will come to Vancouver with his wife Fran and they will travel across Canada with their oldest grand daughter (also an Amy!). They will stop off in many places (Bill's family history is Russian Mennonites and  his relative settles across the plains of Canada) so their Amy can learn about her family history (the Google map of our itinerary on Annie's blog was an idea from Bill).
I will do an update to sustainable canadian communities (the site about the study) early next week. I expect Al will do one his site - canadothis - mid next week and I believe Annie is always working on her site - visual journey across canada. I like the way these are all linked. Enjoy cycling and boating in Corfu. We have great memories of how special a place it is. You guys are very lucky to be able to live there for a good time of the year. Love to Lin, John and Annie

Why the bicycles? This from the project's website:

There are three of us involved in this research across Canada. Professor John Martin is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Regional Communities at La Trobe University. Alistair Walker is an Analyst with the Rural Finance Corporation, both based in Bendigo, Victoria. John and Alistair will cycle to each community and the story of these places will be part of a documentary on the sustainability of small Canadian towns produced by John’s partner, a filmmaker Annie Guthrie. Annie will be in a car. The car travelling with us will provide a backup for safety purposes as well to enable Annie to transport film equipment.
We have chosen to visit these places by bicycle because we are interested in seeing the country through the eyes of a cyclist, allowing us to take our time to take in more along the way. While we are both experienced cyclists we wanted the meet the challenge of the rigour and length of this 7,400 km ride. We believe using a slower means of transport will bring a new perspective to what we find on our journey.
We know from our previous journeys in Australia, you see things as you are cycling along that you don’t see in a car. We also have found that people are most welcoming when you arrive by bike. I can’t explain why but suspect people admire the tenacity or courage in taking on the challenge of a long distance ride. Arriving this way gives you an introduction to people and places that you would not otherwise get when rushing in and out in a car or bus. As such our itinerary below might slip a day or two here and there but it is our intention to stick with it as close as possible assuming the weather and other unforeseen events don’t intervene.

Outline of the research: Canadian and Australian rural communities have much in common. They are located in federations similar in structure and function with provinces/states having considerable authority over these places. Governments are often challenged to provide equitable services to all places, especially so in rural communities. Yet these communities continue to survive often facing the most challenging demographic, economic and environmental circumstances. In this comparative research study we ask:
What is it about these places, people and institutions that sustain them over time.
How does their past, current economic fortunes, social networks and public institutions work together to ensure their sustainability?

I recognise this research is not only about Canada and Australia. Apart from my pleasure (and envy) at following the adventure on which John, Annie and Bill are embarked, I am fascinated by their work; interested in the application of their research to the places and people that matter to me.

Τέτοια στον δρόμο...

Albania from Corfu

I'm missing dear Greece. We'll be there again in February. Sailing down the Adriatic from Venice, making landfall at dawn on the Acroceraunian Peninsular, past the snow capped peaks south of Kadare's town of Gjirokastër, through the Corfu Channel, over to Epirus south to Igoumenitsa from where we'll catch another ferry to the island, thence to Ano Korakiana.
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Item sent to Caroline Rance for our weekly Inlogov Newsletter:

I’m back from nine excellently received one day local government seminars for Mayors, Deputy Mayors and Chief Executives – seven in Australia with Professor John Martin of La Trobe University in Northern Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania (see photo) and two in New Zealand for the SOLGM (Society of Local Government Managers New Zealand) in Wellington and an in-house event for Rangitikei Council. This is Simon’s third teaching tour in Australia, his first in New Zealand – focusing on the theory and practice of negotiating the overlapping responsibilities of councillors and managers at the top of local government. John Martin has replicated, in Australia, Simon’s film research into the joint leadership of lead councillors and officers. (The photo shows John and Simon at a workshop in Tasmania in front of a filmed conversation of Mayor Felicity Ann Lewis and CEO Mark Searle of Marion Council, Australia).

E-mail from my colleague Andrew Coulson

Simon - welcome back to cold and snowy UK! We got these comments a few days ago. Many of them refer to your part of the paper - interesting! I should have passed then on straight away. I think you should reply to George! All the best - Andrew 

 Comments from Prof George Jones on our paper - New Options for Political Management in Local Government

pp. 13-15* Where can I read what Simon has written? (*pp.18-19 in the linked PDF file)

I find the three spaces confused. The figure is fine – I agree there are three types of leadership, but the text uses in the bottom para the word “technical” as if it is the same as “professional”. I dislike the way “administrative” is diminished into minor tasks, like record keeping. There are (i) political leadership, as with English directly-elected mayors/leaders; (ii) administrative leadership which involves coordinating in a generalist way the more specialised units below, as with chief executives/directors of finance; and (iii) these units are headed by specialised chief officers, with their specialised professional expertise. The last two comprise the appointed permanent officials, as distinct from the elected impermanent political leaders.

p.14*. para 1. In the USA the mayor/manager system makes a clear division between political and managerial, with the mayor being of the “weak mayor” variety, and the manager appointed by the council. But “strong mayors” usually need the support of an appointed chief administrative officer, appointed by the mayor. There seems to be a convergence of the two types in practice. (*p.18 in PDF file)

p.14. para.4. I miss from the chief executive’s role coordinating the other officers and their units, and advising the political leadership even about political aspects. Perhaps that is subsumed in the word “situation” NEVER WRITE A WEAK WORD LIKE “SITUATION”. Be specific about what you mean. 

p. 14. para 5. I agree about the moveability of boundaries – all of them. So I worry in para 6 about “a blend of political and administrative contributions” without mention of  “professional” too. I like the phrase “combined dynamics” (and ‘bridge’ and ‘exchange’, but if your threefold distinctions of figure 1 are to be maintained then you need to add the other (‘professional’) to your twofold blend. Another niggle: chief executives and treasurers giving “administrative leadership” are usually “professionals” in their own right, but they are more generalists than specialists. 

p. 15*. para 2. Here you recognise the three-fold distinctions I mentioned above at  (*p.19 in PDF file)

pp.13-15. You refer to them now as (i) “technical”; (ii) “managerial or administrative”, and (iii) “political or strategic”.  You should at the start of the chapter have given a clearer picture of the three leaderships, and their interactions.

My reply:

Dear George...To respond to some of your very helpful points, I’ve found it useful following Churchill’s maxim ( “The English never draw a line without blurring it”) to imagine a tense and dynamic interaction of managerial, professional and political activity in the making of government. The topographical approach and the idea of overlapping zones offer rich metaphors, e.g. centrifugal or centrifocal forces mediated by interpersonal negotiation among people spending more time in one space than the other. 

Good local government is made by people who are part manager, part politician, part professional. My simplified terms are at the tip of several icebergs of definition about differences between managerialism (changed in the paper to ‘administrative leadership’), professionalism (changed to 'technical leadership') and politics and the tension between them. I’m an anthropologist seeking to explain structurally determined conflict and a psychologist seeing how interpersonal skills and values can reduce or amplify those conflicts – with the proviso that conflict isn’t of itself bad, nor its opposite good. Some of what I’ve written can be found here.

I’ve tried to make this material more accessible by putting links to Google.docs files on a page of my blog Democracy Street. Not all servers permit access to Google.docs, so if you’d like to see any of these papers, email me at s.j.baddeley@bham.ac.uk and I’ll send one or more as an email attachment. 

I write, but my enthusiasm has revolved around making films of senior politicians and managers in conversation about their working relationships. I use this to explore political-management leadership on seminars for practitioners. Elaborate ethical procedures apply to the use of this material, but I’ve had permissions from those involved, or their estates, to stream some film on the Internet. Extracts with transcripts and comments can be seen by clicking on the links distributed through my paper on Political-Management Leadership - links the editor was unable to include in the text version of my chapter in the 2008 book - Leadership Learning.

Some of the clips referenced in the paper can also be seen with others plus comments and, in some cases, transcripts, here and here.

The difference between the text and the filmed conversation showing para-linguistic

I’ve ploughed an esoteric furrow in my time at inlogov – a freedom to roam for which I shall be eternally grateful to John Stewart and the culture he created there. This doesn’t mean I’ve not been a keen contributor to inlogov’s mission. A lot of my work has been in-house – here and in other countries.

John Martin & Simon Baddeley: using video in Australia (ph: Pamela Crawford)

Recent films are for reasons of their political sensitivity less available, which is why most of the films streamed via my blog on the Internet were made over two years ago, but I’m confident that the generic features of the political-management relationship have a permanence that ensures their value for both practitioners and on campus. 

This vital working relationship in government holds  fascination for me...As the technology improves, along with my understanding of methodology for accessing these conversations at the heart of democracy, I hope to be able to add to the interest and usefulness of this focus.

Your point about the CEO’s role ‘coordinating the other officers and their units’ applies also to the work of senior politicians' in the political sphere. You put your finger on the methodological challenge posed by the limitations of a camera lens (wiring more than three people for sound gets expensive and intrusively complicated). I've focused on the dyad, with occasional widening of focus in hung/balanced/NOC situations, e.g. Herts No Overall Control

You see the problem! The NOC situation here was filmed in our campus TV studio with a director deciding where to point two cameras. It makes better TV but less good research. As the method has developed I’ve excluded myself from the films, so that instead of being told about the relationships we've a chance to see the people involved having a working relationship.

Another weakness (which you’ve picked up) is that as I’ve come to understand the significance of the dynamic relationship between managers and professionals (core skills and values directly or indirectly involved in the delivery of government) as well as between managers and politicians (bringing a contrasting skills and values) I’ve focused on a dyad and not a triad. This is not necessarily a problem since it is the political-management relationship that operates ‘at the apex’. I use this diagram to open up my argument along with film from an research base collected over thirty years - a sample streamed here.

Political and professional spaces are straddled by political-management space - a hybrid zone where values created in political space encounter the legal, technical and financial parameters of government, and where professional values encounter the rationing of management working to an agenda forged in negotiation between politicians and managers. Managers connect with politicians while building alliances in professional space, and politicians while maintaining their political support, work with managers to monitor implementation. Between them, they create government. 

Political-management trailer from Simon Baddeley on Vimeo.

This and other diagrams are images for exploring the issue of how a political-management dyad relates to the larger society of government. Have you a few sentences that would help combine greater clarity with our paper’s necessary brevity? I’d be delighted to acknowledge your help if were allowed to include them in any revision. In the meantime thanks again for taking the time to make comments on the paper. Kindest regards, Simon

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Nice email from Scylla Parkyn, Hon.Sec. of the Victoria Jubilee Allotments Association about discussion at a meeting while we were out of the country:

Hello Simon...Just to let you know, the topic of beekeeping on the allotment was discussed at the last VJA meeting, and Anna , the person who is allergic bees (& who is also on the committee), said although she would prefer that bees were not right next to her plot, she has no objection to a hive being some elsewhere on site, provided that they are kept by a qualified apiarist, and that whoever keeps them goes through the proper channels, i.e. runs it by the other allotment members first. With best wishes, Scylla