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Departing from an ideal interpretation of the collaborative governance approach, the authors analyse the integrative and collaborative capacities of project-based regional development actions in spatially diverse city regions in Finland. Scrutinizing the relevance of collaborative ideals and their institutional prerequisites becomes all the more salient given the strong emphasis on collaborative approaches to regional diversities throughout Europe. The results show that the integrative potentials are related to specific types of areas. They also call the facilitating capacities of politico-administrative institutions into question. The results are interpreted in terms of an institutional duality that strongly corresponds to the public-private divide.

Participatory Action Research, or PAR, draws on the paradigms of critical theory and constructivism (Whyte, W. F. (1989). Advancing scientific knowledge through participatory action research. Sociological Forum, 32(5), 499–623) and aims to influence the design and outcomes of behaviours occurring in a case study (Woodside, A. G. (2010a). Case study research: Theory, methods and practice (p. 13). Bingley, UK: Emerald). In tourism studies, this methodology is relevant for renewing research orientation and paradigms for stakeholder collaboration, as the approach focuses on the principle of empowering local actors in community-based development processes.

This chapter explores PAR with an exploratory case study in a rural area of Piedmont, Italy. The case study demonstrates that PAR is a valid approach when the research purposes are not only to produce a deep understanding of forms of collaborations but also to create a co-operative climate by planning actions with local actors. The research approach involves evaluating deliberated actions and thereby stimulating strategic thinking in resource allocation processes.

Educational inequities that are often systemic and the result of structural oppression persist in schools under/serving minoritized youth and communities. This chapter illustrates how professional learning networks (PLNs) and the practice of collaborative professionalism within them have served to support educators, positioned at multiple levels, in their effort to serve all children well, and especially those who are most marginalized. Collaborative professionalism emphasizes collective responsibility and student and teacher empowerment through PLNs. Further, the collaborative professionalism model incorporates elements of culture and context to ensure that collaborative efforts are responsive to the students and communities educators are purposed to partner with and serve. In this chapter, the authors highlight two such cases of collaborative professionalism through PLNs in Colombia and Ontario, Canada. These cases provide a model for how collaborative professionalism within PLNs can be utilized to enhance teaching and learning for all teachers and students across cultures and contexts, while attending explicitly to educational inequities.

In a time of rapid policy and curriculum change, teachers must be knowledge workers who continue to develop professionally. Professional learning networks (PLNs) offer teachers the opportunity to develop professionally by positioning them as inquirers into their own practice and authors and agents of situated innovation. Six examples of PLNs are introduced in this book to illustrate key attributes of PLNs that build educators’ ownership, practice, and expertise. Also highlighted is the potential of PLNs to address questions of equity, both for educators working in remote and rural communities who have limited access to professional development and other resources, and diverse learners and equity-seeking communities (e.g., Indigenous communities, non-dominant cultural groups). Scholar, practitioner, and policy audiences can benefit greatly from the PLNs described here and draw from these case studies to inform equity-oriented PLNs centering the importance of teachers, students, engagement, collaboration, and rural place in educational transformation efforts.

This chapter examines the extent to which place based and research oriented university-community engagement (UCE) models can sustain UCE in “non-campus” rural settings. It examines how effective partnerships function in non-campus rural settings, and their contributions to achieving the reciprocal aims of communities and universities. It highlights the key successes, challenges, and opportunities experienced through case studies in non-campus locations in rural Australia (Flinders University Rural Clinical School), rural Sweden (Centre for Rural Health, Storuman), and rural Canada (Northern Ontario School of Medicine). Information provided about the discussed case studies has been provided by the organizations themselves, and the chapter authors are heads of these organizations. The authors share their knowledge of the history, the challenges, the opportunities, and the mechanisms through which the models interact with the partners.

The Southeast Ohio Teacher Development Collaborative (SEOTDC) represents a regional professional community-of-practice with leadership as a key component of educator and organizational capacity building. This chapter highlights the work of this collaborative partnership among five teacher preparation programs in Appalachian Ohio that responds to regional contexts in planning and delivering professional development. Individuals from representative public and private institutions of higher education, state and local educational agencies, and school districts engage in action planning to improve teacher preparation, professional development, and mentoring processes for educators. This is accomplished through recruitment, retention, identification, support, promotion, encouragement, and involvement in a variety of SEOTDC initiatives. Professional development to build educator capacities is considered in terms of people and their contributions, the synergies that are created during the process of collaboration, and organizational arrangements that are designed to support renewal, reform, and personal and interpersonal development. After setting the context within which SEOTDC operates, the chapter identifies concerns, solutions, and outcomes related to four collaborative initiatives.

This chapter highlights the collaborative efforts of committed partners engaged in four distinct yet inter-related programs designed to build leadership capacity across schools serving rural Alaska. The Rural Alaska Principal Preparation and Support (RAPPS) program has built a comprehensive system of leadership development programs that develop aspiring leaders, induct and coach new principals, promote the professional learning of practicing principals, and support the school improvement efforts of the state education department. Each program is described in detail with special attention devoted to the unique elements of the program designs, including summer institutes; cohort models; distance learning offerings; targeted coaching; blended learning models using webinars; critical friends’ conversations; and a festival of ideas. Lessons learned are highlighted, and impact and evaluation results are also detailed.

For the most part there is no rural welfare policy in Canada – just as there are few examples of rural policy. There are many examples where welfare policy has special implications for rural people, and even a few instances where welfare policy has targeted (explicitly or implicitly) rural regions, but this is rarely formulated from a position of rural policy or perspective. In addition, social welfare policy in Canada is complex. Within the Canadian Confederation, social welfare policy is primarily the responsibility of provinces and territories. For that reason, instead of a unified policy system, Canadians have a multitude of welfare policies, somewhat coordinated within a national structure.

This chapter explores the CSR conceptual framework, with a particular focus on the CSR policy diffusion and integration in the corporate banking in India. In a nutshell, the research has threefold objectives, it explores: the dynamics of the CSR conceptual development, sketching out the main contextual drivers leading to CSR policy importance in developed/developing countries; the CSR evolution in Indian scenario, pointing out India’s cultural and institutional contextual factors; and the context of banking sector regulations on CSR policy and guidelines. The analysis is supported by a comparative multiple case study analysis, on three leading public banks: State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank. The rationale for case selection is based on the social and environmental implications of banking financial decisions on the matter. The banking sector is still at the initial stage of integrating CSR policies in their regulations. The findings reveal increasing attention among the banks towards the adoption of social banking regulations. There is a substantial body of empirical evidence showing that the newly CSR core values and guidelines at international level have often had little effect on CSR practice in the banking sector at the country level. The research shows that it is important to look at the CSR evolution through an integrated model of analysis, based on conceptual and empirical evidence. It pointed out an integrated model of analysis of the banking sector through the lens of comparative case studies.

Purpose of paper – Rural Banks (RBs) are unit banks owned by members of the rural community through the purchase of shares and are licensed to provide financial intermediation in rural areas of Ghana. This paper reports on the external and internal mechanisms through which corporate governance is maintained in these banks.

Design/methodology/approach – The findings reported in the paper are based on evidence obtained from a review of relevant documents and interviews with the managers of selected RBs.

Findings – The corporate governance system in the RBs is mainly a rational western model recommended by the World Bank and implemented by the Central bank of Ghana. Under this model corporate governance is expected to be maintained externally through regulatory agencies (the Central Bank of Ghana and the Association of Rural Banks) and internally through the respective Boards of Directors. However, we observe that because of the locations and ownerships of these banks, board appointments and decisions are often embedded in local political and social relations. This affects the independence of the boards and impacts on their role in maintaining corporate governance.

Research limitations/implications – We argue that any attempt to design corporate governance systems in these banks without taking these social and political factors into consideration is likely to lead to failure. This is particularly important given that the World Bank and other international donors are continuously proposing rational western models of governance to institutions in the developing world, such as the RBs. Given that these organizations operate under different sets of environmental conditions, there is likely to be differences between the actual and the idealized corporate governance systems.

Originality/value of paper – The study is important because of the role the rural banks play in the socio-economic development of Ghana. Several other developing countries have established similar institutions to support the development of the informal sector through the provision of microcredit. The research will contribute to the design of appropriate corporate governance systems so as to improve the overall contributions of these institutions.