Book Review: From the inside out: The fight for environmental justice within government agencies by Jill Harrison

In From the Inside Out: The Fight for Environmental Justice within Government Agencies (MIT Press, 2019), Jill Harrison offers a nuanced study of why U.S. state agencies fail at implementing robust environmental justice (EJ) policies. Through a rigorous interview and ethnographic based methodology Harrison details the discourses, ideologies, and everyday practices and through which government agency staff, daily, undermine and even outright reject EJ policies and programs. The book is a richly empirical study that makes valuable contributions to academic and activist understandings of the government's failure to respond meaningfully to environmental injustices, and offers specific recommendations for how to reform government agencies. It is a timely monograph as EJ advocates seek to reimagine government agencies in the wake of the Trump administration, and in the context of an expanded public consciousness of racism following the killing of George Floyd and subsequent uprisings during the summer of 2020.

Strategic Analysis of Collaborative Governance for Disaster Management on Forest and Land Fires in Indonesia

This research aims to understand the strategic analysis of collaborative governance on forest and land fire disasters at the ontological and sociological level that are very significant in reducing risk of natural disasters in Indonesia. The problem is very interesting to be analyzed by conducting a descriptive qualitative research based on theory of public policy, collaborative governance, and strategic management. The data were collected through in-depth interview, observation, and related documentation in forest and land fire cases in Indonesia. The data were analyzed by using interactive models, which are data reduction, data display, data verification, and supported by triangulation. The results were based on ontological and sociological level by using collaborative governance perspective and strategic analysis of internal, external, supporting, and inhibiting factors for reducing disaster risks and improving disaster management. Vision and mission of public policies on disaster management are needed for improving and providing information to stakeholders regarding regulations and sanctions in natural disaster management and produce a revised relevant regulation for state agencies as public officials in making regulations on disaster management in Indonesia.

Power Relation and White-Collar Crime: Case Study of Coastal Reclamation in Indonesia

This research aims to understand the power relation and white-collar crime on managing the coastal reclamation and its implication in Indonesia that is very significant at the ontological and sociological level. The problem is very interesting to be analyzed by conducting a qualitative research method based on power theory and crime theory. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation related to coastal reclamation and its implication in Indonesia. Data were analyzed by using interactive models are data reduction, data display, data verification, and supported by triangulation. The results were based on ontological and sociological levels using criminology perspective for understanding the coastal reclamation and its implication in Indonesia that are needed for providing information to stakeholders related to the regulations and sanctions. This result provides inputs for making better regulation on coastal reclamation policy in Indonesia for state agencies as public officials and practitioners.

Abuse of Power on Managing the Health Care Services Policy for the Indonesian National Army Forces and its Implication on Marginalized Soldier’s Health

This research aims to understand the abuse of power on managing the health service policy and its implication that is very significant in reducing marginalized soldiers’ health due at the ontological level and sociological level. The problem is very interesting to be analyzed by conducting a qualitative research method based on public policy theory, abuse of power theory, and health services theory. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation related to managing the health service policy cases in Indonesia. Data were analyzed by using interactive models are data reduction, data display, data verification, and supported by triangulation. The results were based on ontological level and sociological level using public policy perspective and power perspective for improving health service policy and practice for The Indonesian Army Forces. Vision and mission of public policy on managing health service policy are needed for providing information to stakeholders related, regarding the regulations and sanctions in health service policy. This result provides inputs for making better regulation on health service policy in Indonesia for state agencies as public officials and practitioners.

Implementation of Supply Chain and Logistics for Natural Disaster Management in Indonesia: A Smart Governance Perspective

This research is at the ontological level and sociological level of the implementation of supply chain and logistics equipment for disaster management that are very significant in reducing risk of natural disaster in Indonesia. The problem is very interesting to be analyzed by conducting a descriptive qualitative research. The research used the theory of public policy, smart governance, and supply chain management and logistics. The data were collected using in-depth interview to several key informants, direct observation, and related documentation. The data were analyzed using interactive models, which were data reduction, data display, and data verification, supported by triangulation to obtain validity and reliability. The results were based on ontology, epistemology, and sociology using smart governance perspective by empowering supply chain and logistic to improve disaster management in Indonesia. Vision and mission of public policies related to natural disaster are needed to complete the facilities of prevention, equipment management and logistics supervision, providing information to stakeholders regarding regulations and sanctions in natural disaster that were carried out deliberately and balanced provision of disaster management. Therefore, it will produce a revised and detailed relevant regulation for state agencies as public officials in making regulations on natural disaster and disaster management in Indonesia. The researchers suggest that state institutions must conduct and cover smart governance in making regulations on disaster management.

Amazonia Beyond Borders: Indigenous Land Protection for an Indigenous Group in Voluntary Isolation

This article looks at the land protection efforts by the Manxineru, whose lands are affected by numerous actors: state agencies, enterprises and transnational mega-extraction projects. We draw especially from the experiences, activities, and articulation of the Manxineru in protection of the land for the Yine Hosha Hajene (Mascho-Piro), their kin living in voluntary isolation, who circulate more in the Manxineru’s demarcated territory in the Brazilian-Peruvian border area. The article presents Manxineru’s key land protection practices that have been strengthening the social networks of different actors as a go-between with other Indigenous group and authorities of the dominant society, as well as managing better their own forest resource use, gathering economies, and hunting practices for healthy relations of human-environment assemblage. Indigenous knowledge and perspectives for the protection of ancestral land, beyond the borders of the state-set Indigenous reserves and protected areas, have become crucial in creating new governance models. By these methods, the Manxineru have managed to cope with differing economic interests and values in living that oppose and ignore their human-environment relationality and interactions. Yet, as we will point out, the mosaic of different Indigenous areas and conservation still need the implementation of state protective activities by a variety of governmental actors.

From Royal Canal to Neglected Canal? Changing Use and Management of a Traditional Canal Irrigation System in Peri-Urban Kathmandu Valley

In this chapter we discuss the changing uses and management of a traditional canal irrigation system against the background of processes of urbanization in Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. Until urbanization of Kathmandu Valley took off in the 1980s, the management of stream-fed canal irrigation systems had been a priority of both state agencies and the population that depended on agriculture-based livelihoods. The name rajkulo (royal canal) given to these systems expresses the historical interests of (royal) state actors in canal maintenance and management. Fed by a stream called Mahadev Khola in Dadhikot, a peri-urban village in Kathmandu Valley, Mahadev Khola Rajkulo is such a traditional canal irrigation system. Using an in-depth case study of this system, we analyse the interlinkages of demographic, socio-environmental, economic and local political dynamics with the changing canal uses and management. More specifically, we discuss how and why various actors became associated with, or dissociated from, canal use and management in recent times, and what these processes mean for water access, rights and security. We reflect on the implications of these changes for canal management and canal-related conflicts, against the background of national urban policies that formally aim to conserve agricultural land in Kathmandu Valley, but stimulate urban expansion in practice.

How relationship and dialogue facilitate evidence use: Lessons from African countries

Background: This article shares lessons from four case studies, documenting experiences of evidence use in different public policies in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).Objectives: Most literature on evidence use in Africa focuses either on one form of evidence, that is, evaluations, systematic reviews or on the systems governments develop to support evidence use. However, the use of evidence in policy is complex and requires systems, processes, tools and information to flow between different stakeholders. In this article, we demonstrate how relationships between knowledge generators and users were built and maintained in the case studies, and how these relationships were critical for evidence use.Method: The case studies were amongst eight case studies carried out for the book entitled ‘Using Evidence in Policy and Practice: Lessons from Africa’. Ethnographic case studies drawn from both secondary and primary research, including interviews with key informants and extensive document reviews, were carried out. The research and writing process involved policymakers enabling the research to access participants’ rich observations.Results: The case studies demonstrate that initiatives to build relationships between different state agencies, between state and non-state actors and between non-state actors are critical to enable organisations to use evidence. This can be enabled by the creation of spaces for dialogue that are sensitively facilitated and ongoing for actors to be aware of evidence, understand the evidence and be motivated to use the evidence.Conclusion: Mutually beneficial and trustful relationships between individuals and institutions in different sectors are conduits through which information flows between sectors, new insights are generated and evidence used.

A Typology of Health Services Regulated in U.S. Assisted Living Communities

State agencies regulate assisted living (AL) with varying approaches across and within states. The implications of this variation for resident case mix, health service use, and policy, are not well described. We collected health services-relevant AL regulatory requirements for all 50 states and DC and used a mixed-methods approach (thematic analysis; k-means cluster analysis) to identify six types: Housing, Affordable, Hybrid, Hospitality, Healthcare, and Hybrid-Healthcare. We stratified Medicare claims data by regulatory type, identifying variation in resident case mix and health service use. Housing and Affordable clusters have larger proportions of dual-eligible beneficiaries, Black residents, and residents of Affordable had more long-term nursing home use compared to other clusters. Dual-eligible beneficiaries account for 26.6% of Housing cluster residents compared to 8.1% of Hybrid Healthcare cluster residents. We provide other examples and explain the implications in terms of sampling AL for single and multi-state studies, racial disparities, and health-related policies.