Copyright © 2000 by University of Massachusetts Lowell

Session One: UNIVERSITIES AND SUSTAINABILITY

The Universe and the University
Paul Streeten, professor emeritus, Boston University

The paper begins with four widely accepted propositions: (1) there has been a rapid expansion of universities; (2) social and technological change has accelerated; (3) the talent for original research is scarce; (4) increased specialization and growing elegance in economics have been bought at the expense of realism. If these propositions are accepted, they call for a revision of our ideas of a university. There has been overgrazing in pure research and neglect of fields of higher yield. Among these under-cultivated areas are; (1) communication between specialists; (2) better communications between specialists and the lay public ; (3) better feedback from doers to thinkers; (4) bridging of the gap between research and policy; (5) encouragement of interdisciplinary work at a deep level; (6) acknowledgment of the limits, as well as of the scope of economics; (7) discouragement of racism which is linked to the growing narrowness, fragmentation and exclusiveness of intellectual approaches and the resulting changes in our values. The paper ends wit h an analysis of five different aspects of a university education, analyzed in economic terms. These can be compared to an apple, a heap of coal, a weaving machine, a refrigerator and a television set.

The mission of the University of Massachusetts Lowell includes a commitment to the region to assist its economic and social development. Individual faculty members and university centers have taken seriously that commitment and a wide variety of projects have developed through the interaction of various businesses and other community institutions with the faculty. On the University's side there is an effort to develop an interdisciplinary theory of regional sustainable development which could provide greater coherence to our efforts and our interventions.

One element in the theory-building exercise is consultation with the key actors and interest groups in the region to determine what their various perceptions are concerning:

Between February and July, 2000, separate consultations (“millennium breakfasts”) are bring organized by the University Council on Regional Development with groups of town managers and mayors, local health officers, religious leaders, labor leaders, business officials, school superintendents. Faculty members facilitate the discussions and university staff make detailed notes on the meetings. Faculty members with interest in the subject area attend as observers. Summaries of the individual sessions are reported to the participating groups.

Session Two: UNIVERSITIES, PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND SUSTAINABILITY: CASES STUDIES FROM ASIA

Literature on the role of the universities in regional development is accumulating. To date, much of the literature has been concerned with econometric analysis of the establishment of universities in the local/regional economy and, the role of universities in research, innovation and technological transfer. The role of universities as centers for leadership and community development is a new research theme, at least in the context of developing countries.

The development of a majority of public and private universities in Malaysia has never been conceptualized within the context of regional development planning. This being the case, a large number of public and private universities are located in the more prosperous region of the country - the Klang Valley. One exception being Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) located in the northern state of Pulau Pinang, with its engineering campus in the state of Perak and the medical and health sciences campus in the least developed east coast state of Kelantan. For USM, since its inception in 1969 (after the race riot of May 13, 1969) the university has been trying to play a much wider role in regional development. Issues pertaining to the appropriateness of its response to regional and community needs are continuously being addressed. National education policy relating to tertiary education, the emphasis on research and development and the relevance to industry, and the specific characteristics of USM as a science-based university play significant role in influencing its ability to engage with the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia and the Pulau Pinang Sub-region. In the light of changing external and local environment, and with the corporatization of USM, there is a pressing need for the university to internationalize and at the same time be more relevant to its local community. In so far as the relevance of USM to the local community is concerned, the relocation of the engineering campus in Perak to a semi-rural location at the border of the three northern states of Pulau Pinang, Kedah and Perak provides an opportunity to determine and assess the local community needs and aspirations towards USM.

Many have argued that universities in Malaysia have lost their service role; they are no more guided by notions such as 'philanthropy, obligation, commitment and a desire to civilise'. It is argued that with globalization of higher education and the desire to internationalize the tertiary education sector high on the agenda, universities in Malaysia are becoming business-like with minimal attachment to the community. Arguably, the establishment of universities is alien to local community's aspirations and expectations.

Based on the case study of the planned re-location of USM engineering campus, this paper aims to examine and anticipate USM's engagement with the local community. In this context, one aspect will be dealt with in greater detail, namely, the community service management. Arguably, USM new branch campus will be equipped with a tremendous stock of community facilities, such as sports facilities, hostels and libraries. It is assumed that many if not all of these facilities will offer public access and represent a significant element of the northern region's social, sport, recreational and cultural infrastructure. Its large student population will provide the northern region with a significant service potential.

Higher education has traditionally, i.e. since Independence, been supported by public funding in India. one of the 'side-effects' of the new economic policies that have been in force since 1991 has been that this bounty has been shrinking. There is increasing pressure on universities to raise funds from non-government sources; this marks a sea change for universities, which had remained blissfully unaware of terms like 'soft money' ten years ago. One of the potentially positive effects of this change has been that universities have had to take a closer look at the links they have with the communities and regions in which they are situated. This accentuated awareness of and interaction with the external environment is prompted not only by the need to identify financial resources but also by a recognition that the same macro-economic changes that have shaken universities have also had far-reaching impacts, many of them negative, in the communities and regions that the universities are supposed to serve. At the same time, NGOs (civil society organizations) have been forced to reach out to universities in developing substantive responses to the effects of a globalizing economy.

The emerging and shifting roles that universities are playing is illustrated in this paper by examples from different parts of India. These roles vary from providing research support to collaborating in advocacy efforts, to sharing expertise, and to capacity building initiatives. This, a premier law school provides research and advocacy support to an organization with trade union links, while campaigning to ensure that proposed modifications to labor laws do not infringe on the rights of workers. A leading management institution runs regular courses for the staff of a civil society organization to help them to understand the process of globalization and the implications of the structural adjustment program; thereafter, these organizations update their strategies and interventions.

In developing these roles, universities have diversified beyond their traditional links with government, and their newer links with business, and are building bridges with rural development organizations, trade unions, co-operatives, and with networks of grassroots organizations. Many of these organizations, some of which have strong links to social movements, have broad development goals. A few of them have actually interpreted the concept of sustainable development and applied it to their own contexts. It is interesting to note that shared ideological perspectives do not necessarily underlie these interactions between universities and civil society organizations. rather, the collaborations serve mutual pragmatic and strategic needs. The net effect, however, is that civil society organizations become more effective, the work of the universities becomes more grounded, and - other things being equal - the state becomes more responsive to the needs of the poor and the marginalized and to sustainable development concerns.

It is worthwhile to dwell on the potential impact on universities. Not only will this interaction between universities and civil society organizations influence research methodologies adopted by the former but the closer appreciation of ground realities will undoubtedly also feed into theory building efforts. The experiences showcased in this paper are related from the perspective of a development co-operation agency, Hivos, which has extended financial support to these collaborations. In some cases, Hivos has also been instrumental in matching the demands of civil society organizations with the resources available at universities.

Session Three: EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENT AND GENDER IN SCANDINAVIA

The purpose of this paper is to discuss to how regional learning systems are able to face the challenges from a globalizing economy. In the paper we will argue that the concept 'regional learning system' is a useful analytical concept to understand the relationship between the educational system and regional development. By 'regional learning system' is meant a system of learning that could be described according to three dimensions: 1) how companies within a region learn from each other, 2) how regional educational institutions – including universities – contribute in the production and dissemination of business relevant knowledge, and 3) how local businesses and educational institutions manage to link their networks to national and international producers of knowledge. In other words, the concept regional learning systems blurs the boundaries between formal and informal educational institutions.

We will argue that what characterize the historical development of regions with a successful economic development is a regional learning system which scores high on all three criteria. In this paper we will discuss this hypothesis by analyzing how regional universities/colleges as well as other educational and training institution in declining as well as growing regional economies in the last decades have faced challenges from a globalizing economy. Especially we will focus on two factors: 1) efforts made by these institutions to develop and participate in cross-national knowledge networks, 2) efforts made by these institutions to participate in local businesses' attempts to internationalize. The paper draws upon empirical data from Norwegian regions.

Research on industrial and regional development has only to a marginal degree included considerations about how production systems influence on the environment and how these production systems are influenced by the environment. This paper will investigate some of these relations through a discussion of some of the recent developments within theory, and by presenting a case study of environmental improvement within forestry and the paper industry in Norway and the wider North-European context.

Economic geography, which is one of the (sub)disciplines that makes important contributions to the study of industrial development and regional change have, as a discipline, no tradition for research on the environmental consequences of these changes, although there are some exceptions like Taylor (1996). One could ask why this is so when geography as a discipline partly has been constituted by studying the relations between society and nature. Instead of digging into this question it is probably better to ask how today's theories and concepts within economic geography could inform and be informed by research on the relations between nature and production. This will be done by focusing on one of the theoretical perspectives that has informed research within economic geography – the theory of regulation. This theoretical perspective has recently been scrutinised by Drummond and Marsden (1999) in an attempt to make the theory better suited to analyse the interconnectedness between industrial and societal change and the environment. Some comments and proposals to their approach will be raised, based on my own research on environmental improvements along the paper chain.

The paper chain includes economic sectors, like forestry and the pulp and paper industry, that are important contributors to industrial development and regional change in a number of regions and countries globally. This paper will concentrate on the Norwegian forest sector and pulp and paper industry in a wider Scandinavian or North-European context. While water pollution was on the top of the environmental agenda within the Scandinavian pulp and paper industry from the seventies until the early nineties, questions about biodiversity, forestry and the production of paper have been of greater importance in the second half of the nineties. Developments along the paper chain illustrate that in terms of regulation, not only public bodies are able to regulate the relations between the paper chain and the environment. Pressure from the environmental movement and major publishing houses can, within a given context, have a more profound effect on pulp and paper companies and forest owners.

During the last decade the Swedish labour market went through a severe transformation. The crisis, which hit the country in the beginning of the decade, caused a shift increase in the unemployment levels for both women and men and a decrease in employment. At first the manufacturing industries, building and constructions decreased employment. Soon afterwards the public sector followed with not only a change in the number of employees, but also in the way production was organised. Decentralisation and new forms of production characterises much of the development in the so-called welfare segments of the Swedish labour market during the 1990s. Swedish women have almost the same employment rate as men. At the same time the labour market is very segregated with women predominantly employed in the service sector and mainly in the public service sector working with health, education and child and elderly care. At the end of the decade the situation had turned and labour shortage was a fact in certain occupations and regions, for example in the major metropolitan areas and in both new occupations in IT-industry and more traditional occupations like nurses and school teachers.

This paper consists of three parts:

1. Stability and change - the labour market situation in the 1990s from a gender perspective. A situation with both labour shortage and unemployment. The regional dimension has become very important as a result of the uneven distribution of the employment growth.
   

2. Why a Regional Research and Development Project? Central questions are: In what way does gender segregation on the labour market affect different types of employment, working conditions, means of influence and health/ ill-health for women and men? Can we differences in sex-typed thinking between new change oriented organisations and more traditional ones? How can local actors within the framework of existing institutions and regulations change the gender segregation on the labour market and within organisations?

3. The project brings together a multidisciplinary competence from the field of social science, behavioural and medical science.
   

Action oriented research, a tool for regional development, how can it be used? The project takes place in co-operation between researchers and practitioners. The local actors contribute with knowledge based on local conditions; researchers with gender theoretical perspectives, concepts and general knowledge about working life, health and organisation. A continuous evaluation of the co-operation between the participants in the project takes place and results from these experiences will be discussed here. The project will use different types of data, both quantitative and more qualitative data and is planned for a six-year period. The paper will illustrate the different approaches will data so far available.

Session Four: HEALTH AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The work in progress to be presented can be conceived as a call to “deconstruct managed care.” For-profit managed care in the United States is, rightfully, criticized as threatening the ethical and moral foundations of patient care, the very “covenants of care” between care givers and patients. Yet a managed care package of concepts and techniques is gaining influence in public sector contexts and in other countries. The Wall Street Journal reports that: “Latin America has become a managed-care laboratory, with … an estimated 60 million enrollees” and that health care coverage by managed care plans “is growing 20% a year in the Philippines” (WSJ, 12/2/99). Criteria for computer-based patient record development promulgated by the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense represent additional means of global influence in shaping clinical information systems and infrastructures that are aligned with concepts and techniques developed in the largely privatized U.S. health care system.

Patient care is becoming increasingly complex in ways that pose challenges for coordination and continuity of care that are critically important for quality of care. In addition to patient care quality and access, social concerns over control over clinical decision-making, patient-care provider relationships, issues of work organization, and the privacy of confidential patient data are paramount. Advances in medical informatics and the development of new clinical information tools and infrastructures offer unprecedented possibilities for improving patient care. Yet, in the context of the increasingly for-profit corporate U.S. health care system, new clinical information technologies are deeply implicated in an emerging managed care package of concepts and techniques, certain of which are well-grounded in clinical principles (e.g., clinical strategic goal-setting, clinical epidemiology data collection, realization of social medicine goals) while others are market-driven or based in industrial efficiency models of the organization of clinical work. In what ways may such new tools and systems improve patient care quality and access? What are the relationships between advances in clinical information systems and changing skills, education and training needs of the health care workforce? How is patient care changing for clinicians and other care providers, health care organizations, and patients and communities? What criteria and change agendas are being built into the design of new clinical information tools and information infrastructures?

What are the relations between transformations of health care and sustainable regional development? What are the implications for the roles of the university in a globalizing economy? How are rapidly globalized managed care concepts and techniques being localized? The university at Ronneby/Karlskrona has a mandate to contribute to development in Blekinge County, Sweden, for example through collaborations with companies in the county's "Soft Centre," in joint technology innovation and design projects. A particularly challenging possibility is being planned, a tri-partite research project in the health sector proposed by the medical systems division of a major European software company (industry, university, county as tripartite partners). The software company proposes to come into Blekinge county for a ten-year period, conceiving of the county as a natural laboratory for learning about managed care since the county health sector has undertaken initiatives to improve collaboration between primary, specialty and hospital-based care.

Health care expenditures consumed 14 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 1998, the latest year for which data is available. After a five year hiatus, however, health care costs are on the rise and within the next twenty-five years, health care could account for as much as 25 percent of the nation;s spending. The recent financial collapse of Harvard-Pilgrim Health Care, coupled with the steep cutbacks in federal Medicare spending due to the balanced Budget Act of 1997, and the low rates of reimbursement of the Massachusetts Medicaid program are posing grave problems for the regional health care system including doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and home health care agencies, and the supporting industries and the communities where the industry's workers live. The demise of Harvard-Pilgrim could have long-term ramifications for the regional economy, much like the collapse of the mini-computer industry did just over twenty years ago.

The health of the health care industry is a major determinant of regional economic and social health. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the University in sustaining and fostering the development of the health care industry and its supporting industries and communities to meet the evolving needs of the region. The health care system is important to the region in at least three ways. First, health care is important tin sustaining the health of the region's citizens. This function has a major impact on the health of workers who staff all industries and businesses. Moreover, we know that escalating health care costs have been a major burden on companies and their workers. In the face of the aging of the population, this function will take on increasing importance in terms of keeping people healthy at reasonable costs. Second, UMass Lowell and the community colleges are major suppliers of trained employees for the industry. Graduates take well-paying jobs in the industry and recycle wealth through their communities through their purchasing activities. Third, UMass Lowell is a source of medical innovation for the health care industry through the expertise of its engineers, basic scientists, technologists, business, and health administration graduates. The faculty also provides valuable consulting services.

UMass Lowell can play an important role in convening a regional summit on the operation of the health care system exploring, for example: prevention and health management versus the current focus on illness care; regulation versus free-market and price competitive approaches to costs; and for-profit versus nonprofit solutions, all geared to the sustainability of the regional health care system.

Ptea Teuk Dong was founded in 1994 and is unique in that it is small scale, managed completely by four female Cambodian staff. The staff work from a compound in Anlong Vil, a village near the town of Battambang, in northwest Cambodia. This street family center assists homeless families, in particular widows, many of whom are returnees, internally displaced, or disabled. Our objective is to improve the quality of life of the families we receive, to assist their reintegration in to the community and to return to them the dignity striped from them by years of poverty and war. We increase their ability to become self reliant by teaching them skills, give them the security of land and a house, educate their children at the center school, provide awareness of family health issues, and monitor their progress following reintegration. Sixteen families are received in six month cycles after which they are presented with their new land, house and essential household equipment. Support is ongoing, through regular contact with the social worker at Ptea Teuk Dong.

How can such a tiny operation contribute to the regional development and economic progress of a country like Cambodia? The staff of Ptea Teuk Dong work closely with the families in the center and have personal understanding of their situation. What we share with the is a common background and the hope for a brighter future. Every six months the lives of sixteen families are changed and a measure of pride is returned to the people of Cambodia. A tiny step is taken towards the rebuilding of our nation.

Cambodia is small, however, as the world moves forward ad the globalization rush hour is upon us, projects like Ptea Teuk Dong are remembering the people left behind—all too easily forgotten, all too easily ignored. Nothing could be more important than this when one thinks of 'sustainable regional development.'

Projects:
Credit for the Urban Poor and Graduates from SABORAS Vocational Training
The Credit Scheme was started in 1993, for the women who are widowed, destitute, and for those who are burdened with too many children. The objective of the village bank is to help the women to supplement their income by doing small business in order to improve their living condition. The members form savings group and elect their own village bank committee. SABORAS trains the village bank committee in order for them to manage the activity by themselves. Members borrow from the village bank with interest and they use the money for income generation. The Credit scheme now is self-sustaining. It uses its own capital to loan out money. It is no longer dependent on donor funding.

Vocational Training and Ponlok Yuveaktey Community
The vocational training was started in 1993 in order to provide vulnerable women and girls with skills for employment generation. The project also aims to prevent young girls and women from being exploited into sex trafficking through the provision of skills to generate income. The beneficiaries are girls who are orphaned, handicapped and destitute. The project offers the following skills: Sewing, Beauty, and Cake making.

Day Care And Primary Education
The Day Care Project was initiated in 1993 with the objective to prevent children trafficking by providing them with supplementary food, health care, education, etc. SABORAS built a day care center with the participation of the community. The target beneficiaries of this project are orphaned children, handicapped, and very poor in the age range from 2-6 years old. Besides orphans, the center also accepts children from very poor families so that their mothers can work in the farm or away from home without worrying. We provided training to the day care committee on management, networking for support and funding, problem solving, etc. After 3 years, the center was successfully handed over to the women in the community of Chamcar Samrong I village. To date, the center is running on its own with little or no help from SABORAS. This project serves as a model for other NGOs with similar activities in the province.

SABORAS built a primary school in O Chheukram village, in Pailin City, a former Khmer Rouge strong hold, with the participation of the community. They contributed labor for the construction. They are responsible for the management of the school, selection of the teachers, and maintaining the school. The school benefits all the children under 17 years old in the village.

Rural Development
The rural development project was started in 1995. The beneficiaries are women who are widowed, destitute, burdened with too many children, the handicapped, and the rural poor. The purpose of the project is to increase the skills of the rural poor by providing them with technical skills, health education, and rural credit. SABORAS train the farmers in planting crops, animal raising, animal care and treatment, cassava flour making, animal food making, compost fertilizer making, etc. SABORAS also strengthened the old village bank committee's capacity and continued to provide credit loans to the members in order to use the skills learned for income generation. SABORAS helped the people to organize self-help groups and people committees and let them manage their own development activities in the village.

Staff Development
SABORAS built and strengthened the capacity of the staff through provision of training within and outside of the organization, mutual learning meetings, and field visit and exposure to other NGOs with similar projects. In addition, they are encouraged to take initiatives and exercise their own decision-making ability where necessary. Similarly, SABORAS built and strengthened the capacity of its community development and field workers, as well as the local authorities and village development committees and people committees by providing them training and exposures to other similar projects. In addition, the workers receive support and coaching from the project managers during the implementation of their activities.

Our strategies to encourage ownership/sustainability:
        Ensure people's participation into the activities.
        Motivate people to implement their work by themselves.
        Give people the opportunity to get training through field
           meetings, workshops, and conference.
        Compliment and give people credit for their achievements.

Conclusion
SABORAS Partners in Development Program was implemented well as we successively built and strengthened the capacity of staff and community development workers as our partners in development with high responsibility. To summarize, when people contribute/participate, they have a feeling of ownership. Therefore, they care for the project and help to maintain. More local participation, more success. Only the people's participation and the exercise of people's responsibility can achieve sustainable development.

• To promote public accountability and transparency
  
• To monitor the development and implementation of the electoral process
  

• To build citizens' participation in the democratic process
  

• To advocate for good governance through the institutionalization of democratic values and principles

• To strengthen the implementation of Human Rights; and

• To act as a neutral forum for open and candid debates and discussions on issues of concern to society.
  

• Publishing a monthly Research Bulletin (4,000 copies) that focuses on democracy and accountability transparency, and good governance issues
• Organizing regular televised public forums on issues of national importance
  
• Compiling objective reports on National Assembly and Senate activities
  
• Working closely with legislators to advise on drafting of legislation
  
• Developing an anti-corruption training curriculum for incorporation into the formal teaching program of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
  
• Encouraging the government to pass pro-democracy, human rights and anti-corruption laws
  
• Developing materials and training to promote awareness of the Cambodia electoral process
• Hosting joint meetings of Cambodian civil society to discuss common approaches to major topical issues, and release collective statements of opinion and intent.