What has happened and what has not happened due to the coronavirus disease pandemic: a systemic perspective on policy change

The societal and policy transformations associated with the coronavirus disease pandemic are currently subject of intense academic debate. In this paper, we contribute to this debate by adopting a systemic perspective on policy change, shedding light on the hidden and indirect crisis effects. Based on a comprehensive analysis of policy agenda developments in Germany, we find that the pandemic led to profound shifts in political attention across policy areas. We demonstrate that these agenda gains and losses per policy area vary by the extent to which the respective areas can be presented as relevant in managing the coronavirus disease crisis and its repercussions. Moreover, relying on the analysis of past four economic crises, we also find that there is limited potential for catching up dynamics after the crisis is over. Policy areas that lost agenda share during crisis are unlikely to make up for these losses by strong attention gains once the crisis is over. Crises have hence substantial, long-term and so far, neglected effects on policymaking in modern democracies.

Policy in Practice: Teachers’ Conceptualizations of L2 English Oral Proficiency as Operationalized in High-Stakes Test Assessment

Assessment of foreign/second language (L2) oral proficiency is known to be complex and influenced by the local context. In Sweden, extensive assessment guidelines for the National English Speaking Test (NEST) are offered to teachers, who act as raters of their own students’ performances on this high-stakes L2 English oral proficiency (OP) test. Despite guidelines, teachers commonly construct their own NEST scoring rubric. The present study aims to unveil teachers-as-raters’ conceptualizations, as these emerge from the self-made scoring rubrics, and possible transformations of policy. Data consist of 20 teacher-generated scoring rubrics used for assessing NEST (years 6 and 9). Rubrics were collected via personal networks and online teacher membership groups. Employing content analysis, data were analysed qualitatively to examine (i) what OP sub-skills were in focus for assessment, (ii) how sub-skills were conceptualized, and (iii) scoring rubric design. Results showed that the content and design of rubrics were heavily influenced by the official assessment guidelines, which led to broad consensus about what to assess—but not about how to assess. Lack of consensus was particularly salient for interactive skills. Analysis of policy transformations revealed that teachers’ self-made templates, in fact, lead to an analytic rather than a holistic assessment practice.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PLANS FOR CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT, VEHICLES, AND TOOLS UNDER THE TRANSPORTATION POLICY TRANSFORMATIONS IN THAILAND

This article aims to propose the equipment, vehicle, and tool (EVT) management plans appropriate to the department of rural roads (DRR) in the current situation. This situation is influenced by the government policies that constrain human resources, with budget limitations and new forms of funding procedures. These factors along with technology advancement have challenged the DRR to establish an EVT management plan. To create the plan, the effective inquiry as part of design thinking is used to assess influences through the focus group and content analysis method. The results indicate that the DRR project development role is changed. This change results in four strategic management plans in the EVT. These strategic plans are concerning the EVT management system, EVT procurement and accessibility, unburden and support DRR staff, and finally EVT maintenance and disposal. Besides, the process of EVT strategic management plan development is described and more concerned with the engagement of the policymakers. Therefore, this report facilitates the other public agencies, particularly in the developing countries, in their plan development, based on multifactor real-world settings.

CONCEPT APPROACH FOR MEASURING SOLIDARITY ECONOMY IN AGRICULTURE

Purpose – this work aims to modernize and supplement the methodological approach developed to measure the solidarity economy as a socio-economic phenomenon to determine the reserves and potential for transformation of solidarity at the level of national economies. Research methodology – the presented research has a conceptual character. For the formation of the algorithm for evaluation used the method of logical generalization and systematic analysis, for search and analysis of descriptive data – thematic analysis of literature sources, for the formation and selection of indicators of solidarity economy of the agricultural sector – content analysis of data characterizing the development of cooperatives in agriculture and their environment functioning, using of secondary data allowed to synthesize existing knowledge, to analyze the current state of solidarity of the agricultural sector. Scientific articles of the Scopus database, publications of web portals of the solidarity economy (SE), and information from the Eurostat methodology were used as sources. Findings – the research contributes to increasing the visibility of the positive effects of the SE in the agricultural sector to improve its social and political recognition. Research limitations – the research is limited by the chosen methodological approach that makes it unable to conduct an expansion and development of a system of qualitative indicators of estimation of solidarity economy with a specific focus on agriculture(SEAGro), which can be used for the development of the classification of indicators of SERagro, research of influence of solidarity of farmers on sustainable development of a regions. Practical implications – measuring the scale and impact of SE in the agro sector will help to establish the socio-, eco-logical, and economic effects for Sustainable Development in general and contribute to further institutional and policy transformations. Originality/Value – not only quantitative and qualitative indicators of SE as a socio-economic phenomenon were stud-ied in order to determine the reserves and potential of solidarity transformations, but also developed a scientific and methodological approach to assessing the solidarity of the agricultural.

The ascent and descent of banks’ risk-based capital regulation

The emergence of risk-based capital regulation that is allowing banks to use their internal risk models for regulatory purposes was among the main regulatory developments prior to the financial crisis. During the crisis, it became evident these models underestimated the level of risk. The post-crisis regulatory approach brought a reversal of policy by significantly reducing the scope of risk-based capital regulation and making regulations less risk-sensitive. At first glance, this appears to be a step back toward an antiquated, less sophisticated regulatory regime. This article analyses these two regulatory policy transformations: from less risk-sensitive to risk-based before the crisis and from risk-based to less risk-sensitive subsequently. Its main conclusion is that a mixed regulatory system is superior to either purely non-risk-sensitive or purely risk-based regulation, because a mixed system can help mitigate the negative incentives of both non-risk-sensitive and risk-based regulation.

Social Inclusion and Exclusion in GCC Labour Policy Transformations: Evidence from Qatar and Saudi Arabia

Over the past five years, labour policies in the countries of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have witnessed significant transformations driven by numerous macro-level challenges, such as demographic imbalance, dependence on hydrocarbon economy, political and security crises. Despite the challenges' commonality across the GCC, yet, policy responses related to labour were different from country to another. This article explores the macro-level challenges facing labour policymaking in the GCC, followed by an examination of social inclusion/exclusion patterns targeting expatriate workers in Qatar and Saudi Arabia due to the recent labour policy transformations. Both countries were selected to provide in-depth contextual analysis of the radical shift towards inclusion in Qatar and exclusion in Saudi Arabia.

Capabilities in care for older adults in Finnish familialistic policy transformations: a longitudinal, one-case study

As public provision of health and social care to older adults remains fixed or is scaled back, informal care is increasingly emphasised in policy and in practice. This is also the case in the Nordic welfare state of Finland. Little is known about how individual care arrangements are made. In this study, the capability approach is used to investigate the processes from resources to the actual functionings of receiving care of one older informal care recipient across time. The results reveal difficulties, discontinuity and unpredictability that challenge the capabilities to achieve valued beings and doings.

Policy Transformations about ICT Applying in Learning and Teaching in Vietnamese General Educational System

Informatiom Communication Technology (ICT) has an important place in the educational innovation program. New policies on educational innovation are built on the premises and prospects of effective ICT application in teaching and learning (Richards, 2004). Studies on ICT application in teaching and Electronic Book or Digital Hydbrid Text in Education and Training have been researched and developed by serveral countries in the US and Europe. This article analyzes some policies for ICT application in teaching and educational innovation in Vietnam. These policies are analyzed according to the approaches to the Government of Vietnam Orientation on the application of information technology in education; The Ministry of Education and Training's policies on the Vietnamese education renovation requirements, ICT equipment infrastructure, the capacity of teachers to apply ICT in teaching. The research results show that the government has tried to give directions for ICT to be widely applied from management to teaching activities. The Ministry of Education and Training has also issued circulars and specific instructions to promptly implement orientations from the government. However, the approach to applying ICT in education has many multidimensional and too broad theoretical bases. The instructions on ICT are too sketchy and not yet specific for the application of ICT in teaching and learning.

Conclusions: Differing Contexts, Converging Experiences, Transnational Solidarity

The concluding chapter shifts attention to the diverging socio-economic and political contexts of transnational solidarity organisations from eight European countries, ranging from a severe impact of the Eurozone and migration policy crisis to experiences less affected by recent crises but more vigorously shaped by policy-driven aggravations due to austerity measures, welfare retrenchments and immigration restrictions. The conclusions also underline the considerable number of similarities between solidarity activities and discourses since activists everywhere are concerned about increasing grievances and social problems nurtured by recent crises and/or long-standing public policy transformations. In particular, they highlight salient parallels between most of the countries with regard to politicisation and contentiousness, cooperation and transnationalism and social learning and innovation, while also raising awareness for field-specific differences and particularities.