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News from Fellows - Professor John Loughlin
Appointed an Officier in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
Professor John Loughlin, Director of the VHI and Fellow of St Edmund's College, was appointed an Officier in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Government in 2010. He received the award at a ceremony at the French Embassy's Cultural Centre in March 2012. The Ordre des Palmes Académiques is the second oldest order of chivalry and was established by Napoleon I in 1808. It is award to French citizens for services to higher education in France and to non-French citizens who make a significant contribution to French culture and learning. Professor Loughlin received the award in recognition of his contribution to the French culture and language in the United Kingdom and for his extensive research into European politics.
Assisting the United Nations-Habitat and the Egyptian government to develop a new system of regional governance and planning for Egypt
Professor John Loughlin, Director of the VHI, has been assisting the United Nations-Habitat and the Egyptian government to develop a new system of regional governance and planning for Egypt. After many years of dictatorship and a highly centralized administrative system, Egypt, like many other countries in the world, has been moving towards a more decentralized system. Professor Loughlin chaired a UN-Habitat committee of experts which produced a set of 'Guidelines on Effective Decentralization' which were adopted unanimously by the UN-Habitat General Council, consisting of 60 countries, at their meeting in Nairobi in 2007. Professor Loughlin has researched and written extensively on regionalization and decentralization in European countries. His most recent publication in this area is the Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe, jointly edited with Frank Hendriks and Anders Lidstrom and published by Oxford University Press in 2010 which covers all 27 EU member states as well as Norway and Switzerland. In 2007 he published Subnational Government: the French Experience. He is currently editing the Routledge Handbook of Regionalism and Federalism which is due to be published in 2012.