scholarly journals Advancing a health equity agenda across multiple policy domains: a qualitative policy analysis of social, trade and welfare policy

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e040180
Author(s):  
Belinda Townsend ◽  
Sharon Friel ◽  
Toby Freeman ◽  
Ashley Schram ◽  
Lyndall Strazdins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Multiple Data ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Issue Frames ◽  
Partnership Agreement

ObjectiveWhile there is urgent need for policymaking that prioritises health equity, successful strategies for advancing such an agenda across multiple policy sectors are not well known. This study aims to address this gap by identifying successful strategies to advance a health equity agenda across multiple policy domains.DesignWe conducted in-depth qualitative case studies in three important social determinants of health equity in Australia: employment and social policy (Paid Parental Leave); macroeconomics and trade policy (the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement); and welfare reform (the Northern Territory Emergency Response). The analysis triangulated multiple data sources included 71 semistructured interviews, document analysis and drew on political science theories related to interests, ideas and institutions.ResultsWithin and across case studies we observed three key strategies used by policy actors to advance a health equity agenda, with differing levels of success. The first was the use of multiple policy frames to appeal to a wide range of actors beyond health. The second was the formation of broad coalitions beyond the health sector, in particular networking with non-traditional policy allies. The third was the use of strategic forum shopping by policy actors to move the debate into more popular policy forums that were not health focused.ConclusionsThis analysis provides nuanced strategies for agenda-setting for health equity and points to the need for multiple persuasive issue frames, coalitions with unusual bedfellows, and shopping around for supportive institutions outside the traditional health domain. Use of these nuanced strategies could generate greater ideational, actor and institutional support for prioritising health equity and thus could lead to improved health outcomes.

scholarly journals How can multiple frames enable action on social determinants? Lessons from Australia’s paid parental leave

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 973-983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Townsend ◽  
Sharon Friel ◽  
Phillip Baker ◽  
Fran Baum ◽  
Lyndall Strazdins
Keyword(s):  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Cost Shifting ◽  
Policy Actors ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Paid Parental Leave

Abstract How do public health advocates and practitioners encourage policy actors to address the social determinants of health? What strategies can be used to elevate healthy social policies onto government agendas? In this paper, we examine the case of Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme, announced in 2009 after decades of policy advocacy. This scheme provides job-protected leave and government-funded pay at the minimum wage for 18 weeks for eligible primary care givers on the birth of an infant, and has been shown to reduce health inequities. Drawing on documentary sources and interviews (n = 25) with key policy actors, this paper traces the evolution of this landmark social policy in Australia, focusing on the role of actors, institutions and policy framings in setting the policy agenda. We find that advocates strategically deployed three different framings—for economy, gender equality and health—to drive paid parental leave onto the Government’s agenda. They navigated barriers linked to power, gender ideology and cost, shifting tactics along the way by adopting different frames in various institutional settings and broadening their coalitions. Health arguments varied in different institutional settings and, at times, advocates selectively argued the economic or gender equality framing over health. The case illustrates the successful use of strategic pragmatism to provoke action, and raises broader lessons for advancing action on the social determinants of health. In particular, the case highlights the importance of adopting multiple synergistic policy framings to draw support from non-traditional allies and building coalitions to secure public policy change.

scholarly journals Creating Political Will for Action on Health Equity: Practical Lessons for Public Health Policy Actors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fran Baum ◽  
Belinda Townsend ◽  
Matt Fisher ◽  
Kathryn Browne-Yung ◽  
Toby Freeman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Health Equity ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Policy Actors

Background: Despite growing evidence on the social determinants of health and health equity, political action has not been commensurate. Little is known about how political will operates to enact pro-equity policies or not. This paper examines how political will for pro-health equity policies is created through analysis of public policy in multiple sectors. Methods: Eight case studies were undertaken of Australian policies where action was either taken or proposed on health equity or where the policy seemed contrary to such action. Telephone or face-to-face interviews were conducted with 192 state and non-state participants. Analysis of the cases was done through thematic analysis and triangulated with document analysis. Results: Our case studies covered: trade agreements, primary healthcare (PHC), work conditions, digital access, urban planning, social welfare and Indigenous health. The extent of political will for pro-equity policies depended on the strength of path dependency, electoral concerns, political philosophy, the strength of economic and biomedical framings, whether elite interests were threatened and the success or otherwise of civil society lobbying. Conclusion: Public health policy actors may create political will through: determining how path dependency that exacerbates health inequities can be broken, working with sympathetic political forces committed to fairness; framing policy options in a way that makes them more likely to be adopted, outlining factors to consider in challenging the interests of elites, and considering the extent to which civil society will work in favour of equitable policies. A shift in norms is required to stress equity and the right to health.

Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Joseph Conrad ◽  
Ezra Pound ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
First Century ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
Cinematic Adaptation ◽  
Narrative Tradition ◽  
Wide Range

Stories of a visit to the realm of the dead and a return to the upper world are among the oldest narratives in European literature, beginning with Homer’s Odyssey and extending to contemporary culture. This volume examines a series of fictional works by twentieth- and twenty-first century authors, such Toni Morrison and Elena Ferrante, which deal in various ways with the descent to Hades. Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture surveys a wide range of genres, including novels, short stories, comics, a cinematic adaptation, poetry, and juvenile fiction. It examines not only those texts that feature a literal catabasis, such as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, but also those where the descent to the underworld is evoked in more metaphorical ways as a kind of border crossing, for instance Salman Rushdie’s use of the Orpheus myth to signify the trauma of migration. The analyses examine how these retellings relate to earlier versions of the mythical theme, including their ancient precedents by Homer and Vergil, but also to post-classical receptions of underworld narratives by authors such as Dante, Ezra Pound, and Joseph Conrad. Arguing that the underworld has come to connote a cultural archive of narrative tradition, the book offers a series of case studies that examine the adaptation of underworld myths in contemporary culture in relation to the discourses of postmodernism, feminism, and postcolonialism.

Explanation Beyond Causation

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Philosophical Study ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Causal Information ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Wide Range

Explanations are very important to us in many contexts: in science, mathematics, philosophy, and also in everyday and juridical contexts. But what is an explanation? In the philosophical study of explanation, there is long-standing, influential tradition that links explanation intimately to causation: we often explain by providing accurate information about the causes of the phenomenon to be explained. Such causal accounts have been the received view of the nature of explanation, particularly in philosophy of science, since the 1980s. However, philosophers have recently begun to break with this causal tradition by shifting their focus to kinds of explanation that do not turn on causal information. The increasing recognition of the importance of such non-causal explanations in the sciences and elsewhere raises pressing questions for philosophers of explanation. What is the nature of non-causal explanations—and which theory best captures it? How do non-causal explanations relate to causal ones? How are non-causal explanations in the sciences related to those in mathematics and metaphysics? This volume of new essays explores answers to these and other questions at the heart of contemporary philosophy of explanation. The essays address these questions from a variety of perspectives, including general accounts of non-causal and causal explanations, as well as a wide range of detailed case studies of non-causal explanations from the sciences, mathematics and metaphysics.

scholarly journals Analysis of the policymaking process in Burkina Faso’s health sector: case studies of the creation of two health system support units

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Zida ◽  
John N. Lavis ◽  
Nelson K. Sewankambo ◽  
Bocar Kouyate ◽  
Kaelan Moat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health System ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
System Support ◽  
The Creation

scholarly journals Ocean Emission Effects on Aerosol-Cloud Interactions: Insights from Two Case Studies

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin Sorooshian ◽  
Hanh T. Duong
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Anthropogenic Pollution ◽  
Cloud Microphysics ◽  
Marine Aerosols ◽  
Aerosol Cloud ◽  
First Case ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Aerosol Cloud Interactions

Two case studies are discussed that evaluate the effect of ocean emissions on aerosol-cloud interactions. A review of the first case study from the eastern Pacific Ocean shows that simultaneous aircraft and space-borne observations are valuable in detecting links between ocean biota emissions and marine aerosols, but that the effect of the former on cloud microphysics is less clear owing to interference from background anthropogenic pollution and the difficulty with field experiments in obtaining a wide range of aerosol conditions to robustly quantify ocean effects on aerosol-cloud interactions. To address these limitations, a second case was investigated using remote sensing data over the less polluted Southern Ocean region. The results indicate that cloud drop size is reduced more for a fixed increase in aerosol particles during periods of higher ocean chlorophyll A. Potential biases in the results owing to statistical issues in the data analysis are discussed.

Industrial Legislation in 2010

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shae McCrystal ◽  
Belinda Smith
Keyword(s):  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Full Effect ◽  
Safe Work ◽  
Work Health ◽  
Paid Parental Leave ◽  
Specific Regulation

Two themes in legislative activity in 2010 were national uniformity and some movement in using law to promote equality, especially gender equality. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) came into full effect with the commencement of the new safety net provisions and the referral to the Commonwealth of industrial relations powers over private-sector workforces in all states except Western Australia. Progress continued on the promised harmonization of Australian occupational health and safety laws with the release of a model Work Health and Safety Bill by Safe Work Australia, although developments in some states threaten to derail the process. An attempt to repeal most of the industry-specific regulation of the building and construction industry failed. The Federal Parliament passed legislation establishing a national paid parental leave scheme, and a number of changes to federal discrimination laws came into effect or were proposed, including the potential consolidation of federal discrimination legislation. This article provides an overview of these developments at federal level and concludes with a discussion of developments in the states including a brief overview of Victoria’s new equal opportunity legislation.

scholarly journals Applying Nitrogen Site-Specifically Using Soil Electrical Conductivity Maps and Precision Agriculture Technology

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 767-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.D. Lund ◽  
M.C. Wolcott ◽  
G.P. Hanson
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Conductivity ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Soil Texture ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
N Availability ◽  
Soil Electrical Conductivity ◽  
Variable Yield ◽  
Wide Range

Soil texture varies significantly within many agricultural fields. The physical properties of soil, such as soil texture, have a direct effect on water holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, crop yield, production capability, and nitrogen (N) loss variations within a field. In short, mobile nutrients are used, lost, and stored differently as soil textures vary. A uniform application of N to varying soils results in a wide range of N availability to the crop. N applied in excess of crop usage results in a waste of the grower’s input expense, a potential negative effect on the environment, and in some crops a reduction of crop quality, yield, and harvestability. Inadequate N levels represent a lost opportunity for crop yield and profit. The global positioning system (GPS)-referenced mapping of bulk soil electrical conductivity (EC) has been shown to serve as an effective proxy for soil texture and other soil properties. Soils with a high clay content conduct more electricity than coarser textured soils, which results in higher EC values. This paper will describe the EC mapping process and provide case studies of site-specific N applications based on EC maps. Results of these case studies suggest that N can be managed site-specifically using a variety of management practices, including soil sampling, variable yield goals, and cropping history.

scholarly journals A comparative survey of the impacts of extreme rainfall in two international case studies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Spekkers ◽  
Viktor Rözer ◽  
Annegret Thieken ◽  
Marie-Claire ten Veldhuis ◽  
Heidi Kreibich
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Extreme Rainfall ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Biased Sampling ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Damage Data

Abstract. Flooding is assessed as the most important natural hazard in Europe, causing thousands of deaths, affecting millions of people and accounting for large economic losses in the past decade. Little is known about the damage processes associated with extreme rainfall in cities, due to a lack of accurate, comparable and consistent damage data. The objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of extreme rainfall on residential buildings and how affected households coped with these impacts in terms of precautionary and emergency actions. Analyses are based on a unique dataset of damage characteristics and a wide range of potential damage explaining variables at the household level, collected through computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) and an online survey. Exploratory data analyses based on a total of 859 completed questionnaires in the cities of Münster (Germany) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) revealed that the uptake of emergency measures is related to characteristics of the hazardous event. In case of high water levels, more efforts are made to reduce damage, while emergency response that aims to prevent damage is less likely to be effective. The difference in magnitude of the events in Münster and Amsterdam in terms of rainfall intensity and water depth, is probably also the most important cause for the differences between the cities in terms of the suffered financial losses. Factors that significantly contributed to damage in at least one of the case studies are water contamination, the presence of a basement in the building and people's awareness of the upcoming event. Moreover, this study confirms conclusions by previous studies that people's experience with damaging events positively correlates with precautionary behaviour. For improving future damage data acquisition, we recommend to include cell-phones in a CATI survey to avoid biased sampling towards certain age groups.

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