The existence of brownfields in the cadastre of towns and municipalities subjectively and objectively reduces the comfort of life not only for residents but also for visitors and economic entities as a whole. The key problem of brownfields is primarily the negative externalities associated with abandoned and unused buildings and sites, which, given the public sector’s social commitment to maintaining cleanliness and public order, encourage municipalities to actively address the situation of these unwanted properties. The advantage of the public sector is that it has better access to multi-source funding for the brownfield redevelopment process itself and can thus be more successful than the private sector. The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between the characteristics of brownfield sites and the structure of public sources of financing for their regeneration, with the example of the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. The analysis of the use of public finance itself has not been surveyed and published anywhere before, and offers an interesting insight into the issue of public financing of brownfield regeneration in a Central European country.

Integrated early childhood systems require coordination across education, health, and social protection, making them a demanding test case for local governance and intersectoral administrative capacity. This article examines how municipal authorities can act as conveners and coordinators of integrated service delivery, using the Primokiz-supported process in Brașov Municipality (Romania) as a case study. Data comes from a structured situation assessment within the ‘Romania Grows with You’ initiative, including three focus groups (professionals, parents of children in partner kindergartens, and parents of children in partner nurseries) and 1,049 parent questionnaires. Findings point to a set of governance-relevant constraints: fragmented referral pathways across sectors, uneven specialist coverage across neighborhoods, limited inter-institutional routines, and workforce bottlenecks that weaken early identification and intervention, often compensated through private or NGO provision, with equity implications. The municipality-led coordination process translated these constraints into a metropolitan early childhood strategy covering 17 communities and into inter-municipal learning networks, illustrating how local administrative capacity and ‘soft’ coordination tools can scale beyond single jurisdictions. The article contributes to public administration debates on decentralization, collaborative and network governance, and the role of municipalities in complex service systems, offering relevant lessons on pathway design, workforce coordination, and institutionalized local governance for equity.

This paper examines the transformative potential of climate adaptation projects in Belgrade by analyzing how urban governance enables innovation, enhances visibility, and supports institutionalization – three key conditions for building transformative capacity. Using a structured methodological framework, the study maps 65 projects implemented between 2020 and 2024, assessing their activities, actor networks, and funding mechanisms. The results indicate that most projects focus on preparatory actions, such as planning instruments and knowledge exchange, with limited implementation of physical interventions. While administrative bodies have played a central role in initiating innovation, the lack of strong political leadership, institutional learning, and sustained financial commitment constrains systemic transformation. The findings highlight underdeveloped cross-sector collaboration and limited continuity between project phases, with innovation often remaining isolated and short-term. However, promising examples such as innovation competitions and international partnerships suggest entry points for more embedded and participatory adaptation pathways. The paper argues that strengthening local institutional capacities, fostering diverse networks, and embedding feedback mechanisms into planning processes are essential for advancing transformative urban climate governance. The study also demonstrates that the applied framework can be replicated in other cities, particularly those with post-socialist context, offering both methodological and theoretical contributions to climate adaptation and urban planning research.

This study examines the impact of local public administration on the perceived effectiveness of municipal multi-sport clubs in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), a region characterized by hybrid governance and strong municipal ownership of sports organizations. Using original survey data from 181 clubs across 11 CEE countries, the research employs an ordered logit model to evaluate how financial support, strategic co-decision-making, and administrative transparency influence club outcomes such as internal satisfaction, public visibility, and perceived athletic performance. Results show that municipal funding significantly improves both satisfaction and performance, while involvement in decision-making enhances visibility. Transparent and predictable administrative practices foster trust and improve organizational satisfaction. The study highlights the role of local authorities not only as resource providers but as civic partners capable of shaping inclusive and visible sports ecosystems. These findings have policy relevance for strengthening municipal governance practices and improving the resilience and civic function of publicly supported sport institutions in transitional governance environments.

Organizational change has become increasingly frequent across various sectors, and public administration is no exception. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of organizational changes on organizational climate, as well as public servants’ responses to structural changes within the Slovenian state administration. The study was conducted in May 2025 in state administration institutions in Slovenia, and 1,070 respondents were included in the research sample. The data were collected using an online questionnaire developed with the 1KA online tool, and statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS Statistics 29. This study revealed that the majority of respondents had experienced organizational changes over the past five years, with personnel-related and structural changes being the most prevalent. We found statistically significant associations between certain types of organizational change and employees’ perceptions of the organizational climate in the Slovenian state administration. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that both communication clarity and management feedback had a statistically significant negative effect on public servants’ negative responses, as well as a positive effect on their perceptions of the organizational climate.

The implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is driving a paradigm shift in public administration, reshaping resource management, public service delivery, and institutional values. This study examines the role of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the role of training in equipping public officials with systems thinking and interdisciplinary competencies, aligning training processes with institutional requirements. We provide a theoretical, methodological, and empirical analysis of the Romanian case, offering insights into the development of a new professional category: the sustainable development expert. Our findings highlight the correlation between SDG competency frameworks and the training needs of public officials, proposing educational and institutional strategies to enhance sustainability-related expertise. The Romanian experience serves as a reference model for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers across the EU in advancing public administration training for sustainable development.

Volunteering is widely endorsed in Romania, yet formal participation remains limited, creating persistent recruitment and retention challenges for NGOs. To understand the attitudinal landscape underlying this gap, this study applies the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) to nationally representative survey data collected in April–May 2024 (N = 1,005). The measurement strategy captures perceived value, social norms, feasibility, trust, and motivational functions relevant to volunteer engagement. Exploratory factor analysis identifies eight coherent attitudinal dimensions, and k-means clustering of factor scores reveals four orientations toward volunteering: (1) Critics, (2) Involved, (3) Undecided and Indifferent, and (4) Skeptics with Personal Priorities. The typology distinguishes between distrust-based and constraint-based skepticism, clarifying why widespread approval does not reliably translate into sustained participation. Integrating TPB and VFI at the population level provides a theory-informed account of the mechanisms that shape volunteering intentions in Romania, a context marked by low formal NGO-based volunteering rates and lingering post-socialist ambivalence toward civic organizations. The findings offer a segmentation lens that NGOs and policymakers can use to improve volunteer recruitment and role design, reduce perceived barriers, and strengthen management practices suited to different attitudinal profiles. Limitations and avenues for comparative and confirmatory research are discussed.

This study explores local governments’ Weibo – based info disclosure during health crises like COVID-19, using governance capacity and legitimacy frameworks. It identifies three strategies: high-quality, focused and balanced disclosure. Cities like Hangzhou and Harbin show these are influenced by disclosure capacity and legitimacy. High-quality disclosers focus on livelihood info, while focused ones prioritize epidemic info. Balanced disclosers are in-between. This analysis highlights the interplay between governance capacity and legitimacy in local government information strategies during health crises.

Governance of healthcare services is worldwide predominantly pursued in competitive quality-sensitive markets, which are nowadays drastically influenced by strong digitalization trends. This paper explores a value-based approach to enhancing healthcare delivery through the integration of emerging advanced digital technology access and the use of customized strategic decision and policy frameworks. The study begins by addressing the urgent policy and societal need for value-based healthcare systems, particularly in response to global or urgent health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel integrated healthcare intelligence framework, proposed in our study, aims to enhance healthcare management by leveraging cross-cutting digital approaches, strategic performance management, and big data analytics. This study addresses, in a systematic way, a collection of three elected key contextual conditions, including a mind mapping presentation, smart wellbeing conditions, and institutional corporate challenges. Each section in this paper examines consistently various specific operational strategies and digital technologies aimed at improving healthcare policy outcomes and setting a global benchmark for service innovation in the healthcare sector. The study presents at the end the contours of an integrated digitally-inspired early warning system for quality enhancement in the healthcare sector. The concluding section proposes operational anchor points for innovative healthcare service delivery, showcasing sustainable and equitable healthcare solutions through illustrative AI-driven pilot projects, practical capacity building, and public health engagement initiatives.