Puzzling Publics: The role of reflexive learning in universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) policy formulation in Canada and the US

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Millar ◽  
Adrienne Davidson ◽  
Linda A White
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Policy Innovation ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Considerable Uncertainty ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Policy Elites

Building on theories of social learning and policy change, this article argues that reflexive learning provides a causal mechanism for how public engagement in policy formulation can trigger policy innovation. Reflexive learning is a mode of learning that takes place during policy formulation and is most likely to occur in policy areas marked by considerable uncertainty and complexity (low problem tractability) and the participation of a wide range of actors (low actor certification). We contend that reflexive learning processes can restructure policy problems and widen the menu of available policy options and prompt policy elites and citizens to collectively update their beliefs, resulting in policy innovation. We probe the plausibility of this mechanism of policy change through a comparative study of universal pre-kindergarten policy making in the US and Canada. Through two paired comparisons (Florida and California; Ontario and Alberta), we find that policy innovation occurs when publics are engaged in policy formulation through iterative, ongoing public consultation on policy instruments and settings. Reflexive learning among publics and policy elites generates legitimacy, facilitating major policy change.

The contribution of policy design to realist evaluation

Evaluation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-314
Author(s):  
Guillaume Fontaine
Keyword(s):  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Realist Evaluation ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Policy Outcome ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
Empirical Tests

The literature on policy design provides insightful resources to improve policy evaluation. We compare how this literature addresses causation, evaluation, instrumentation, and intervention, based on different methodologies. Then, we explain how the realist approach can contribute to theory-based evaluation with multi-methods. We go through the process leading from the adoption of policy aims to the production of a policy outcome by a causal mechanism linking agenda setting to policy formulation, cross-sectorial coordination, political interplays, and this policy’s outcome. This hypothesis is then tested against a typology of policy instruments classified by the State resources. These instruments are hereby treated as expected empirical observations that provide an empirical basis to assess the theoretical process following a Bayesian logic. We eventually present a five-step protocol aimed at making realist policy evaluation easier, which includes process theorization and operationalization, empirical tests design, case selection and justification, congruence analysis, and deep within-case study.

ESRC Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 657-698
Author(s):  
Simeon J. Yates ◽  
Jordana Blejmar
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Levels Of Automation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Technological World ◽  
Ways Of Being

Two workshops were part of the final steps in the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned Ways of Being in a Digital Age project that is the basis for this Handbook. The ESRC project team coordinated one with the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (ESRC-DSTL) Workshop, “The automation of future roles”; and one with the US National Science Foundation (ESRC-NSF) Workshop, “Changing work, changing lives in the new technological world.” Both workshops sought to explore the key future social science research questions arising for ever greater levels of automation, use of artificial intelligence, and the augmentation of human activity. Participants represented a wide range of disciplinary, professional, government, and nonprofit expertise. This chapter summarizes the separate and then integrated results. First, it summarizes the central social and economic context, the method and project context, and some basic definitional issues. It then identifies 11 priority areas needing further research work that emerged from the intense interactions, discussions, debates, clustering analyses, and integration activities during and after the two workshops. Throughout, it summarizes how subcategories of issues within each cluster relate to central issues (e.g., from users to global to methods) and levels of impacts (from wider social to community and organizational to individual experiences and understandings). Subsections briefly describe each of these 11 areas and their cross-cutting issues and levels. Finally, it provides a detailed Appendix of all the areas, subareas, and their specific questions.

Punk as Folk: Continuities and Tensions in the UK and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pete Dale
Keyword(s):  
Folk Music ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Collective Creativity ◽  
Living Tradition ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”

scholarly journals Hospital-Based Donor Recruitment and Predonation Serologic Testing for COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Balcerek ◽  
Evelin Trejo ◽  
Kendall Levine ◽  
Paul Couey ◽  
Zoe V Kornberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Donation ◽  
High Titer ◽  
Igg Antibodies ◽  
Serologic Testing ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Polymerase Chain ◽  
Igg Level ◽  
Donor Recruitment ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Objectives Serologic testing for antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in potential donors of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) convalescent plasma (CCP) may not be performed until after blood donation. A hospital-based recruitment program for CCP may be an efficient way to identify potential donors prospectively Methods Patients who recovered from known or suspected COVID-19 were identified and recruited through medical record searches and public appeals in March and April 2020. Participants were screened with a modified donor history questionnaire and, if eligible, were asked for consent and tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (IgG and IgM). Participants positive for SARS-CoV-2 IgG were referred for CCP collection. Results Of 179 patients screened, 128 completed serologic testing and 89 were referred for CCP donation. IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 23 of 51 participants with suspected COVID-19 and 66 of 77 participants with self-reported COVID-19 confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgG level met the US Food and Drug Administration criteria for “high-titer” CCP in 39% of participants confirmed by PCR, as measured by the Ortho VITROS IgG assay. A wide range of SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels were observed. Conclusions A hospital-based CCP donor recruitment program can prospectively identify potential CCP donors. Variability in SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels has implications for the selection of CCP units for transfusion.

scholarly journals Citizen views on genome editing: effects of species and purpose

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gesa Busch ◽  
Erin Ryan ◽  
Marina A. G. von Keyserlingk ◽  
Daniel M. Weary
Keyword(s):  
Disease Resistance ◽  
Product Quality ◽  
Genome Editing ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
Moral Foundations ◽  
Perceived Risks ◽  
Public Response ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us

AbstractPublic opinion can affect the adoption of genome editing technologies. In food production, genome editing can be applied to a wide range of applications, in different species and with different purposes. This study analyzed how the public responds to five different applications of genome editing, varying the species involved and the proposed purpose of the modification. Three of the applications described the introduction of disease resistance within different species (human, plant, animal), and two targeted product quality and quantity in cattle. Online surveys in Canada, the US, Austria, Germany and Italy were carried out with a total sample size of 3698 participants. Using a between-subject design, participants were confronted with one of the five applications and asked to decide whether they considered it right or wrong. Perceived risks, benefits, and the perception of the technology as tampering with nature were surveyed and were complemented with socio-demographics and a measure of the participants’ moral foundations. In all countries, participants evaluated the application of disease resistance in humans as most right to do, followed by disease resistance in plants, and then in animals, and considered changes in product quality and quantity in cattle as least right to do. However, US and Italian participants were generally more positive toward all scenarios, and German and Austrian participants more negative. Cluster analyses identified four groups of participants: ‘strong supporters’ who saw only benefits and little risks, ‘slight supporters’ who perceived risks and valued benefits, ‘neutrals’ who showed no pronounced opinion, and ‘opponents’ who perceived higher risks and lower benefits. This research contributes to understanding public response to applications of genome editing, revealing differences that can help guide decisions related to adoption of these technologies.

Investment in the agricultural sector as a way to solve food security problems in developing countries: the example of investment activity of the US agribusiness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Stepanovna Ustinovich ◽  
Tatyana Petrovna Boldyreva
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Investment Activity ◽  
Agricultural Investment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Potential Benefits

It is clear to everyone that investment in the agricultural sector in developing countries is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and hunger in the world. Agricultural investment can generate a wide range of development opportunities. However, these benefi ts cannot be expected to arise automatically. Some forms of large-scale investment pose significant risks to investor states. It should be noted, however, that, despite discussions about the potential benefits and risks of international investment, there is still no evidence of negative actual consequences for the countries receiving investments. This article examines the issues of investment activity in relation to developing countries using the example of US agribusiness entities.

scholarly journals The essential role of physiotherapists in providing rehabilitation services to people living with HIV in South Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Cobbing ◽  
V. Chetty ◽  
J. Hanass-Hancock ◽  
J. Jelsma ◽  
H. Myezwa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
People Living With Hiv ◽  
Highly Active ◽  
Hiv Epidemic ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Living With Hiv ◽  
Education Courses

Despite increased access to highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) in South Africa, there remains a high risk of people living with HIV (PLHIV) developing a wide range of disabilities. Physiotherapists are trained to rehabilitate individuals with the disabilities related to HIV. Not only can South African physiotherapists play a significant role in improving the lives of PLHIV, but by responding proactively to the HIV epidemic they can reinforce the relevance and value of the profession in this country at a time when many newly qualified therapists are unable to secure employment. This paper offers recommendations that may help to fuel this response. These ideas include enhancing HIV curricula at a tertiary level, designing and attending continuing education courses on HIV and researching Southern African rehabilitation interventions for HIV at all levels of practice. furthermore, it is vital that physiotherapists are at the forefront of directing multi-disciplinary responses to the rehabilitation of PLHIV in order to influence stakeholders who are responsible for health policy formulation. it is hoped that this paper stimulates discussion and further ideas amongst physiotherapists and other health professionals in order to improve the quality and access to care available to PLHIV in South Africa.

The Americanisation of C. L. R. James

Race & Class ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Scott
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Global Impact ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cultural Climate ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Activist ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual ◽  
To Receive

The writings of the Black Marxist-Leninist thinker and activist C. L. R. James are now widely known and studied, although most of his long career was passed in obscurity. His two most influential books, The Black Jacobins (1938) and Beyond a Boundary (1963) now have a global impact. But his work did not begin to receive wide recognition until the 1980s and 1990s. And it is the nature of that recognition, and the ends to which his work has been put in the US academy, that this article explores. In critiquing a wide range of influential theoretical approaches to James’ work, the author relates current interpretations of it to the wider political and cultural climate engendered by neoliberalism, with its emphasis on the individual not as a historical agent, but as primarily concerned with self-fashioning and cultural identity. In the process, the article demonstrates how the political activist thrust of James’ analyses and work, and its concerns with imperialism and resistance, has been set aside as part of the corporate world’s continuing appropriation of the ‘alternative and adversarial culture of the 1960s’.

scholarly journals Quebec’s Economic and Commercial Linkages with the United States, 1994–2017

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Earl H. Fry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
The North ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the ebb and flow of the Quebec government’s economic and commercial relations with the United States in the period 1994–2017. The topic demonstrates the impact of three major forces on Quebec’s economic and commercial ties with the US: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which became operational in 1994 and was fully implemented over a 15-year period; (2) the onerous security policies put in place by the US government in the decade following the horrific events of 11 September 2001; and (3) changing economic circumstances in the United States ranging from robust growth to the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The article also indicates that the Quebec government continues to sponsor a wide range of activities in the United States, often more elaborate and extensive than comparable activities pursued by many nation-states with representation in the US. 1 1 Stéphane Paquin, ‘Quebec-U.S. Relations: The Big Picture’, American Review of Canadian Studies 46, no. 2 (2016): 149–61.

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