Morning Steve,

I have real issues with the notion of 'best practice' . Personally, I 
think the term is rather unhelpful and thus I probably fall into your 
'category b'! However, I agree that the issue demands some urgent 
empirical attention. Please find below an abstract for a conference 
paper I'm currently writing on this issue. I'm happy to send you the 
final paper when it's complete and would value any feedback you might have.

Kind regards,

James

P.S. You may want to look up stuff by Meric Gertler, a prominent 
Canadian geographer who has explored these issues in the context of 
manufacturing processes. He writes extremely well.

***

Cultural Heterogeneity and the Fallacy of 'Best Practice':

implications for the transition to sustainable mobility

 

 

 

James Macmillen

Research Fellow, Transport Studies Unit

School of Geography and the Environment

University of Oxford

Oxford, UK

* *

 

 

The notion of 'best practice' enjoys great currency in sustainable 
mobility research; at first glance its theoretical underpinnings appear 
intuitive and seem to represent a neat microcosm of the movement's 
broader project of discovery, dissemination and implementation. When 
such concepts are imported from other disciplines, however, there is an 
unfortunate tendency for their associated critiques to become 
'decoupled' during transit, the corollary of which is that--while 
enthusiastically embraced--they are liable to yield only a blunt and 
unrefined contribution to theoretical debate and practical application. 
Thus while 'best practice' has latterly been subject to considerable 
censure in management science and economic geography, it still enjoys a 
relatively carefree reception within transport studies. Drawing on 
examples from a range of literature, this paper deconstructs 'best 
practice' into its constituent elements, revealing its considerable 
shortcomings and arguing against its continuation as a viable concept in 
sustainable mobility research. Particular attention is focused on three 
areas: the manner in which a focus on 'best practice' serves to relegate 
genuine appreciation of institutional heterogeneity; the extent to which 
it tacitly endorses a professional environment where the solutions to 
transport problems are externalised to lie 'outside' of the immediate 
context; and the articulation of identified 'best practice' as somehow 
existing beyond critique. Yet, while these are pertinent issues, we 
clearly cannot abandon attempts to further the sustainable mobility 
agenda through the sharing of grounded experience. The paper concludes, 
therefore, with some tentative suggestions for how transport 
professionals might learn from each other in a more fruitful and 
constructive manner.



-- 
James Macmillen
Research Fellow, Sustainable Urban Futures

Transport Studies Unit
School of Geography and the Environment
University of Oxford
South Parks Road
Oxford
United Kingdom
OX1 3QY

Direct tel: +44 (0)1865 285 533
Fax: +44 (0)1865 275 885

www.tsu.ox.ac.uk


Melia wrote:
> To what extent, and under what circumstances, can experience observed 
> in one country or culture be transferred to another?
>
> A lot of transport (and other built environment) research tends to 
> "look across the fence" usually for better practice to be emulated, 
> sometimes for worse practice to be avoided.  But how do we know 
> whether something which works in one country, will work in the same 
> way somewhere else?
>
> Most researchers (and others) who take this approach either:
>
> a) assume that something will work in the same way, or:
> b) argue that it won't work (or will work differently) because of some 
> contextual differences
>
> In both cases, the writers seem to make up their own criteria for 
> arguing either a) or b).  I have never come across any general theory, 
> or even rule-of-
> thumb criteria for assessing how experience might transfer across 
> countries or cultures.
>
> Has anyone come across anything relevant to this?
>
> Steve Melia
> University of the West of England
>