scholarly journals Stakeholder Perspectives on Infant Formula Safety Governance in China: A Decade after the Melamine Crisis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronghui Yang ◽  
Klasien Horstman ◽  
Bart Penders
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Corporate Reputation ◽  
Stakeholder Participation ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Central State ◽  
Segmented Model ◽  
Stakeholder Perspectives ◽  
Governance Infrastructure

This paper critically engages with dynamics of the Chinese food safety governance infrastructure following the melamine crisis. It presents a qualitative analysis of sixteen in-depth stakeholder interviews in Hunan, Hubei and Henan. We reveal tensions between a segmented model of governance and a centralised model, between a centralised top-down model and stakeholder participation, and between a public model and a private, decentral market where corporate reputation must result in transparency and trust. Stakeholders also see gaps between ideals of inclusive, transparent and participatory governance, and effective problem-solving. Governance of food safety in China, even when targeting inclusion and public accountability, remains heavily dependent on the central state as a pivotal actor.

The Principles and Practices in Action

2021 ◽  
pp. 162-178
Author(s):  
Cynthia Rayner ◽  
François Bonnici
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Slow Pace ◽  
The Face ◽  
Strategic Conversation

This book asks a rather simple but bold question: “How do organizations create systemic social change?” This question is growing in importance, becoming part of the strategic conversation for all types of organizations, not just those specifically focused on social change. Business leaders, politicians, educators, employees, and parents are grappling with the realization that complex social change can rapidly impact their everyday lives. As frustration at the slow pace of change grows, and the world’s wicked problems—such as inequality, climate change and racial justice—proliferate, people are increasingly recognizing that we need to find ways to tackle the root causes of these issues rather than just addressing the symptoms. In the face of these challenges, it is easy to default to our more traditional views of leadership and problem-solving, which celebrate an us-versus-them mentality, top-down decision-making, and aggressive power stances. Systems work—with its focus on the process of change including our day-to-day actions and relationships—may feel counterintuitive in this rapidly emerging future. Yet, as the authors’ research has shown, the future is demanding a different kind of leadership, one that emphasizes the ways we work as much as the outcomes we pursue.

Meeting Corporate Needs: How Technical Writing can Prepare Students for Today's Changing Work Place

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Gerson ◽  
Sharon J. Gerson
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Work Place ◽  
Writing Teachers ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Team Projects ◽  
Organizational Teams

How can Technical Writing teachers better prepare students for their careers? Corporations suggest that they want employees who can work together on teams, solve problems, and communicate. This requirement is due to the changing nature of business which is no longer industrial, employing a top-down managerial hierarchy. Today's businesses focus on information and employ a horizontal management which leans heavily on the employee who works in inter-organizational teams. First, we show our students how writing is a problem-solving activity. Next, we emphasize this point by assigning numerous short and long team projects which require problem solving and communication.

Subnational State Capacity and the Repression of Protest: Evidence from Mexico

2020 ◽  
pp. 106591292091949
Author(s):  
Heather Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Central State ◽  
Level Data ◽  
State Agents ◽  
Original Event

While protests occurring in nationally democratic contexts rarely represent fundamental threats to the central state, they still need management when and where they occur. Thus, this paper suggests that, especially in federal countries, to explain the repression of protest, we must examine subnational politics. Subnational political elites, often tasked with protest management, can engage protesters and call for police restraint, but their capacity and authority affect their ability to carry out these tasks. The paper tests the theory using original event-level data on Mexican protests and responses and leverages within-country variations in democracy and state capacity. The paper shows that where subnational governments have bureaucratic capacity and where citizen linkages to the state cause them to see state agents as relevant, problem-solving authorities, protest events are less likely to be managed using a repressive response. In addition, the paper highlights a key difference between explanations of overall human rights violations and repressive responses to protest, namely, that electoral competition is not a significant factor reducing the likelihood of repressive responses to protest.

Post-Sovereign Environmental Governance

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley C. Karkkainen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Chesapeake Bay ◽  
Ecosystem Management ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Hybrid Governance ◽  
The Us ◽  
Management Effort ◽  
Complex Environmental Problems ◽  
Domestic Regulation

This article examines a mode of hybrid governance in which sovereign states and nonstate parties collaborate as equal partners to address complex problems that are beyond the problem-solving capacities of states acting alone. Under conventional state-centric approaches, environmental policy is the exclusive province of territorially delimited sovereign states, subject only to such obligations as states incur through voluntary inter-sovereign agreements. In contrast, “post-sovereign” governance is non-exclusive, non-hierarchical, and post-territorial. These arrangements emerge from recognition of the limitations of top-down domestic regulation and rules of inter-sovereign obligation as means to address such complex environmental problems as ecosystem management. Examples are drawn from the US experience in the Chesapeake Bay region, and the joint US-Canadian Great Lakes ecosystem management effort.

Spreadsheets based on interval constraint satisfaction

1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eero Hyvönen
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Constraint Satisfaction ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Typical Situation ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Inexact Data ◽  
Computational Paradigm ◽  
Special Case ◽  
Interval Constraint

AbstractSpreadsheets are difficult to use in applications, where only incomplete or inexact data (e.g., intervals) are available-a typical situation in various design and planning tasks. It can be argued that this is due to two fundamental shortcomings of the computational paradigm underlying spreadsheets. First, the distinction between input and output cells has to be fixed before computations. Second, cells may have only exact values. As a result, spread-sheets support the user only with primitive iterative problem solving schemes based on trial-and-error methods. A constraint-based computational paradigm for next generation interval spreadsheets is presented. The scheme makes it possible to exploit incomplete/inexact data (intervals), and it can support problem solving in a top-down fashion. Current spreadsheets constitute a special case of the more general interval constraint spreadsheets proposed.

Mediational Techniques: Origins and Application to Occupational Therapy in Paediatrics

1998 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 202-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Missiuna ◽  
Theresa Malloy-Miller ◽  
Angela Mandich
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Occupational Therapists ◽  
Occupational Performance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Cognitive Approaches ◽  
Problem Solve

For a variety of reasons, occupational therapists are beginning to explore the use of cognitive, or “top-down” approaches during intervention. While these approaches have a long history within education and psychology, the steps involved in problem-solving and the techniques that are used to mediate a child's occupational performance are unfamiliar to most therapists. In this paper, the historical underpinnings of cognitive approaches and mediational techniques are reviewed and the steps involved in teaching a child to problem solve are outlined. As each is described from the literature, it is interpreted and applied to paediatric occupational therapy practice. Finally, the problem-solving steps and techniques are combined to demonstrate usage of a cognitive approach in order to address a common occupational performance issue in childhood.

Are there Age-Related Differences in Problem Solving on the World Wide Web?

2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (21) ◽  
pp. 1772-1776
Author(s):  
Aideen J. Stronge ◽  
Wendy A. Rogers ◽  
Arthur D. Fisk
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Search Tasks ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The World ◽  
Problem Solving Strategies ◽  
The Web

The present study investigated the Web-based problem solving strategies of 16 younger and 16 older experienced Web users. Participants searched for answers to 8 search tasks varying in complexity. Three questions were addressed in this study: (1) Are there age-related differences in success?, (2) If differences in success emerge, are these age-related differences quantitative (e.g., number of strategies)?, or (3) Are these age-related differences qualitative (e.g., type of strategies)?. Overall, younger adults were more successful finding the correct answer to the search tasks. However, this was not due to the number of strategies used, but instead was related to the type of strategy used. Older adults were more likely to use a top-down strategy (i.e., system tool) to find an answer to the search tasks. In general, unsuccessful searchers used significantly more top-down strategies than successful searchers. The implications for these findings are discussed.

China's Food Standardization System, Its Reform and Remaining Challenges

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-520
Author(s):  
Pinghui Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Safety Standard ◽  
Current Reform ◽  
Government Involvement ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
Regulatory Failure

The article examines China's food standardization system, its reform and remaining challenges. Upon examining China's general standardization system, the article argues that the food standardization institutional framework has originated from the general standardization, which has developed a four-level hierarchy mechanism. It further examines the most salient features of China's food standardization system, namely, top-down hierarchy and intensive government involvement, and suggests that these features caused a regulatory failure. Although China recently reformed this fi eld, and the food safety standard hierarchy has been streamlined, challenges remain. The article reviews China's current reform in the food standardization system by providing a description, analysis and comparison of approaches from Europe and China.

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