Getting Real about Unknowns in Complex Policy Work

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Education Policies ◽  
Policy Success ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
The People ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Novel Strategy ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Work Education ◽  
And Control

As with all public policy work, education policies are demanding. Policy workers need to ‘know’ a lot—about the problems they are addressing, the people who need to be engaged, the promises they can make in response, the context they are working in, and the processes they will follow to implement. Most policy workers answer questions about such issues within the structures of plan and control processes used to devise budgets and projects. These structures limit their knowledge gathering, organization and sense-making activities to up-front planning activities, and even though sophisticated tools like Theories of Change suggest planners ‘know’ all that is needed for policy success, they often do not. Policies are often fraught with ‘unknowns’ that cannot be captured in passive planning processes and thus repeatedly undermine even the best laid plans. Through a novel strategy that asks how much one knows about the answers to 25 essential policy questions, and an application to recent education policy interventions in Mozambique, this paper shows that it is possible to get real about unknowns in policy work. Just recognizing these unknowns exist—and understanding why they do and what kind of challenge they pose to policy workers—can help promote a more modest and realistic approach to doing complex policy work.

Research Participation Experiences of Informants of Suicide and Control Cases

Crisis ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 238-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. C. Wong ◽  
Wincy S. C. Chan ◽  
Philip S. L. Beh ◽  
Fiona W. S. Yau ◽  
Paul S. F. Yip ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Research Participation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
Psychological Autopsy ◽  
Autopsy Study ◽  
The People ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Background: Ethical issues have been raised about using the psychological autopsy approach in the study of suicide. The impact on informants of control cases who participated in case-control psychological autopsy studies has not been investigated. Aims: (1) To investigate whether informants of suicide cases recruited by two approaches (coroners’ court and public mortuaries) respond differently to the initial contact by the research team. (2) To explore the reactions, reasons for participation, and comments of both the informants of suicide and control cases to psychological autopsy interviews. (3) To investigate the impact of the interviews on informants of suicide cases about a month after the interviews. Methods: A self-report questionnaire was used for the informants of both suicide and control cases. Telephone follow-up interviews were conducted with the informants of suicide cases. Results: The majority of the informants of suicide cases, regardless of the initial route of contact, as well as the control cases were positive about being approached to take part in the study. A minority of informants of suicide and control cases found the experience of talking about their family member to be more upsetting than expected. The telephone follow-up interviews showed that none of the informants of suicide cases reported being distressed by the psychological autopsy interviews. Limitations: The acceptance rate for our original psychological autopsy study was modest. Conclusions: The findings of this study are useful for future participants and researchers in measuring the potential benefits and risks of participating in similar sensitive research. Psychological autopsy interviews may be utilized as an active engagement approach to reach out to the people bereaved by suicide, especially in places where the postvention work is underdeveloped.

"Do not Worry Your Head": The Impossibility of Indigenising Social Work Education and Practice in Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwaku Osei-Hwedie ◽  
Doris Akyere Boateng
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
North American ◽  
Social Work Education ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Social Work Educators ◽  
The People ◽  
African Context ◽  
Drawing Board ◽  
Work Education

As the discussions and debates rage on about the content and direction of social work in Africa, the challenges associated with weaning the profession off its Western and North American roots become apparent. The desire to indigenise or make the profession culturally relevant is well articulated in the literature. Some efforts have been undertaken toward achieving this desire. However, it is evident that despite the numerous discussions and publications, it appears that efforts at indigenising, localising, or making social work culturally relevant have not made much progress. While what must be achieved is somewhat clear; how to achieve it and by what process remain a conundrum. The article, therefore, revisits the issue of making social work culturally relevant in Africa and its associated challenges. Despite the indictment of current social work education and practice in Africa, it appears that many academics and professionals have accepted that what is Western is global, fashionable, and functional, if not perfect. Given this, perhaps, “we should not worry our heads” about changing it. Instead, social work educators and practitioners in Africa should go back to the drawing board to determine how current social work education and practice can be blended with a traditional African knowledge base, approaches and models to reflect and align with the critical principles and ideals within the African context. This is with the hope of making the profession more relevant to the needs of the people of Africa.

The Theme of Longingness in Manju Kapur’s novels

Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1857-1861
Author(s):  
P. Nainar Sumathi
Keyword(s):  
Her Family ◽  
The People ◽  
And Control

According to Men, Women are always considering as a weaker sex. They sacrificed her whole life for her husband and children. For an example, after the long travel everyone wants to take rest. But woman is an only person goes to kitchen and arranges food for everyone. She doesn’t wants to take rest even if she tired. She always concern about the needs of everyone in her family. She has to physically satisfy her husband though she is tired. Woman is an abundant gift given to this world. They are very precious unless men know the worth. She is the only person could balance and control her mind at any point. The term feminism has not attained its goal. There are many songs and movies explained the oppression of women in the hands of men as well as women. These words are not effective as well as the dominants still following the same attitude which we cannot modify. The people minds are corrupted which cannot change through feminism movies, theories or any other effective songs. This article focuses Manju Kapur’s revolutionistic ideas, longingness, subjugations and sufferenings through different characters from her different novels

Promoting Savings for Financial Resilience: Expanding the Psychological Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
Crystal C. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Savings

In the United States, the lack of personal savings has been a perennial concern in the world of public policy. Policymakers and other practitioners constantly struggle with how to encourage families to accumulate funds in preparation for inevitable, but often unpredictable, financial emergencies. The field of applied behavioral science has attempted to address this challenge—often with mixed or modest results. I argue that psychological science (personality and social psychology in particular) offers underappreciated insights into the design and implementation of policy interventions to improve the rate of individual savings. In this article, I briefly discuss examples of prior interventions that have attempted to increase saving and then lay out some opportunities that have not been deeply explored. Future research in this area should broaden and deepen the way that psychology is leveraged as a tool to improve the financial security of the people who are the most vulnerable.

Serving the state or serving the people? The dilemma of social work graduates in Mainland China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajendra Baikady ◽  
Cheng Shengli ◽  
Gao Jianguo
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
The State ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Function ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Schools Of Social Work ◽  
Depth Interviews

This article reports on the result of an exploratory qualitative study with in-depth interviews conducted with postgraduate students in Chinese universities. The data were collected from five schools of social work, covering three provincial-level administrative regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong. The principal aim of this article is to understand the development of social work and student perspectives on the government’s role in social work development and the function of social work in China. The study shows that Chinese social work is still developing, and the expansion and function of social work education and practice is mandated by the state. Despite a robust authoritarian hold by the government, the study finds hope among the graduate students about the mission and future of social work in China.

Keeping the Focus on Public Health: The Struggles of a Tobacco Prevention Task Force

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 771-788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacquie A. Shillis ◽  
Beverly A. Hall ◽  
Gail G. Sneden ◽  
Nell H. Gottlieb
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Tobacco Prevention ◽  
Policy Success ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
The Common ◽  
And Control ◽  
Future Program ◽  
Product Sets

This case study examines a nonlegislative task force as it struggled to reach internal consensus despite external-political constraints. The study highlights the convergence of politics and science, revealing complex issues likely to be confronted by advocates and public health officials. Three themes capture participants’experiences: context, sizing up the opportunities and constraints; task force process, tacit strategy to operate outside the political context and play the science card; and aftermath, a glass half full. The task force took advantage of ambiguous parameters, crafting a comprehensive statewide plan to reduce tobacco use and breaking out of the common public health paradigm of allowing budget considerations to drive program design. These internal victories could not sustain a policy success in the legislature. However, the group’s product sets science-based standards for future program development, and the task force’s process provides valuable insights into other states developing tobacco prevention and control policies.

scholarly journals Environment, arbovirus transmission and control of epidemics

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Cordellier ◽  
Nicolas Degallier
Keyword(s):  
Yellow Fever Virus ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Transmission Cycle ◽  
The People ◽  
Natural Foci ◽  
Effective Role ◽  
Control Of Epidemics ◽  
And Control

In order to illustrate the relationships between the biotopes (or phytogeographical zones), arbovirus vectors and vertebrate hosts (including man), and epidemiology, current knowledge on the transmission of Yellow Fever virus in West Africa is reported. A dynamic scheme has been devised to integrate the observed geographical distribution of cases and the timing of their occurrence. Two principal areas, endemicity and epidetnicity, were defined according to the presence or absence of sylvatic monkey-mosquito transmission. The intensity and potential of contacts between humans and vectors depends on the degree of man-made changes in the environment, often increasing the extension of ecotone areas where the mosquitoes are easily biting at the ground level. Prevention and/or control of arbovirus diseases require detailed eco-epidemiological studies to determine: (1) the effective role of each potential vector in each phytogeographical region; (2) the risk factors for the people living in or near areas with a sylvatic transmission cycle; (3) the priorities - vaccination and/or control - for preventing the expansion of natural foci.

Regulatory Administration: An Evolving and Neglected Area of Public Administration in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 686-702
Author(s):  
Yudhishthira Sapru ◽  
R.K. Sapru
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Current Phase ◽  
The Public ◽  
The People ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
Governance Process ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
And Control

In the current phase of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, and now broadly governance, regulatory administration has acquired growing importance as an instrument of achieving socio-economic objectives. It is through instrumentality of regulatory administration that the government is able to exercise effective political and economic sovereignty and control over the country’s governance process and resources. Governments of nearly all developing countries have initiated policies and procedures to promote and strengthen regulatory bodies and agencies. However, the results of these promotional and regular activities have varied considerably, often reflecting large inadequacies in policies, organisational structures and procedures. Increasing emphasis is now being placed at the national level on a more flexible regulatory administration to enforce compliance with nationally established policies and requirements in various political, economic and social spheres. As a watchdog for the public interest, governments both at central and state levels should engage in activities for the promotion of social and economic justice, so as to ensure the happiness and prosperity of the people.

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