Further Strengthening Agri-Value Chains in India—Way Forward

The value chain analysis undertaken in this study reveals their varying performance against the conceptual framework of CISS-F. This research has helped understand the functioning of the value chains and implications of key policy reforms on the ground. There are examples of successful agricultural value chains, which clearly indicate how policies have worked in the interests of the farmers and contributed towards making the chain more efficient. However, there are several challenges confronting these value chains that need serious policy attention. Each value chain study concludes with a proposed list of desirable interventions, and way forward, very specific to the commodity. These proposed interventions are by no means exhaustive. Rather, they represent a set of critical and urgent actions which are necessary for the growth and development of that particular value chain.

The editor’s note: Time to invest in rural education

For decades, the needs of rural schools and students have received scant media and policy attention and have had to make do with insufficient funds. As Rafael Heller explains, the current education policy landscape is opening up opportunities for rural education advocates to press for the kinds of reforms that could improve both rural school and their communities overall.

Outsiders Looking in. The Re-enrolment Struggles of Early School Leavers in Norway

Despite a vast literature on the causes and consequences of leaving school prematurely, little scholarly and policy attention has been paid to those who re-enter education after a temporary withdrawal. Re-enrolment is often portrayed in the literature as an active act of agency requiring inner drive. Based on 18 interviews with young early school leavers and re-enrolees in Norway, we construct two empirically founded re-enrolment narratives: ‘opposing otherness through dreams of ordinariness’ and ‘accepting the rules of the game—re-enrolment as a fragile opportunity’. Although embracing and reproducing the discourse about educational credentials as being the key to a happy life, the narratives do not support the idea of a re-enrolment drive as being vital to succeed within educational institutions. While they aspire for normality and believe normality is achieved through educational credentials, they are in need of a support system that either accommodates their individual needs, or nudges them back ‘on right track’.

Transition Inequity: gendered employment trends in New Zealand’s energy industries

Energy industries are experiencing a period of rapid and sustained change as nations seek to meet climate policy targets. In Aotearoa New Zealand a gap in both information about and attention to the gendered dimensions of the proposed low-emissions transition has emerged. This silence has implications for the distributive impacts of any transition. We present data illustrating the sub-sector variation in women’s employment, pay, tenure and executive representation in both the electricity and fossil fuel industries. Recommendations are presented for more sustained policy attention to how an energy transition, given current gendered employment trends, is unlikely to be inclusive or just.

The looming pensions crisis requires policy attention

Straining pension systems, 25% of people in high-income nations will be aged 65 or more by 2040, twice the share in 2000

The novelty news frame: How social identity influences policy attention of minority presidential candidates

The 2020 primaries featured the most diverse candidates seeking the U.S. presidency to date; however, news media preoccupied with the novelty of a candidate’s social identity may result in less policy coverage for those underrepresented in electoral politics. Utilizing content analysis, this study explores the prevalence of novelty news frames that emphasize candidate identity across three national news outlets and examines whether these frames diminish the volume of policy coverage for minority candidates.

Introduction

Recent academic and policy attention focuses on the “convergence” of gambling and games. Yet, looking at the social and historical context of gambling and games, we see they were always intertwined, with both reflecting broader social, economic and cultural conditions. Setting out the argument for this book, this chapter contends that what we see today, with phenomena like loot boxes, is an acceleration of this trend, amplified by the changing technologies which underpin both industries. Little attention has been paid to these broader social and historical processes, which limits our understanding of them and our anticipation of what might happen next. This book aims to act as a primer to place the “convergence” of gambling and gaming within its rightful historical context and encourages us to take a broader perspective when thinking about the impact of these developments.

The comparative agendas project in Latin America: data and coding

This paper introduces the Comparative Agendas Project system of coding as well as a wealth of gathered and in process data from Latin America using this established and reliable system for capturing policy attention comparatively and over time. While this is not the first introduction of the coding system, it is the first introduction aimed at Latin America and a new type of political system beyond North American and European democracies. First, we present an overview of the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) and the Master Codebook used to create comparative policy attention data across countries, over time, and between agendas. These details of CAP are discussed for Latin America in general and for Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, countries that recently started to gather data using these coding.

O Comparative Agendas Project na América Latina: dados e codificação

This paper introduces the Comparative Agendas Project system of coding as well as a wealth of gathered and in process data from Latin America using this established and reliable system for capturing policy attention comparatively and over time. While this is not the first introduction of the coding system, it is the first introduction aimed at Latin America and a new type of political system beyond North American and European democracies. First, we present an overview of the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) and the Master Codebook used to create comparative policy attention data across countries, over time, and between agendas. These details of CAP are discussed for Latin America in general and for Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, countries that recently started to gather data using these coding.