Policy Analysis/Policy Studies

Taking the Copyfight Online: Comparing the Copyright Debate in Congressional Hearings, in Newspapers, and on the Web

by Bill Herman

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Volume 17, Issue 3, pages 354–368, April 2012

This article examines the rhetoric around copyright and the regulation of digital rights management (DRM) from 2003 to... more This article examines the rhetoric around copyright and the regulation of digital rights management (DRM) from 2003 to 2006 in congressional hearings, in major newspapers, and on the most prominent relevant websites. The article describes a new combination of methods for identifying a set of online documents to compare with offline documents via content analysis. These three media present very different views of the copyright debate. Hearings present a rough balance of both coalitions' messages. Newspapers lean slightly toward stronger fair use but have little coverage. The online debate features a deluge of strong fair use arguments. These findings highlight different communication strategies and suggest broader lessons about the changing nature of policy advocacy and the policymaking process.

Putting Participation into Practice: re-evaluating the implementation of the Citizenship curriculum in England.

by Avril Keating

Co-authored with David Kerr. Forthcoming in Hedtke, R. and Tatjana Zimenkova (eds.) Education for Civic and Political Participation: A Critical Approach (Under contract with Routledge; Expected publication October 2012)

Organizacja i funkcjonowanie szkolnictwa wyższego w Republice Korei – wnioski dla Polski

by Agnieszka Piasecka

The paper analyses perspectives of implementing Korean solutions into Polish higher education sector. It was presented at the conference Finance and Public- Private Partnership in higher education sector: Polish reality and international perspectives held in Rzeszów on 20th April 2012. The original is in Polish. Status: accepted. More info about the conference: http://www.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/pl/dzialalnosc_naukowo_badawcza/konferencje_naukowe/konferencja/Strony/finansowanie-i-partnertwo.aspx

Governing by Numbers? Obstacles and opportunities for cultural indicators in policy

by Emma Blomkamp

Presented at Making Culture Count: Rethinking measures of cultural vitality, wellbeing and citizenship, Melbourne, 3rd May 2012

If governance is as much an art as a science, then what role should numerical indicators play in policy making?more If governance is as much an art as a science, then what role should numerical indicators play in policy making?

“What’s measured matters” is a common assumption in the practice and theory of governance.  Following the hegemony of economic measures of progress and the short-lived social indicators movement, numerous frameworks of cultural and community indicators are now emerging. Variously touted as tools for identifying problems, capturing values, monitoring progress and evaluating outcomes, these indicators have a range of potential policy applications. Representing and responding to complex socio-cultural outcomes in numerical form is full of challenges, though.

Just as painting by numbers is hardly considered a form of “high art”, the use of indicators to guide policy-makers may fall short of “good governance”. This presentation explores the potential for cultural indicators to inform and improve evidence-based policy and democratic accountability, while also considering the pitfalls of “governing by numbers”. By giving a broad critical overview of the origins and applications of cultural indicators, the presenter will thus problematise these devices, before considering concrete examples where they have been, or might be, put to good use by policy-makers.

Learning the Hard Way

by STAMATIA KREMMYDA

published in 'Insight, Edinburgh University Economics Magazine', page 30

Abstract, Dedication, and Acknowledgments for the Hobbs (2011) dissertation published by SAS.

by Robert Dean Hobbs

The Hobbs (2011) doctoral study is published in the ProQuest Dissertations and These database, UMI No. 3484309

The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how... more The purpose of the qualitative research was to assess models of education developed for the study to investigate how and when to incorporate second and third languages into the curriculum to improve language acquisition. Research indicates that L3 enhances and reinforces L2 and L1. The stratified systematic grounded theory study explored the perspectives of neurolinguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, and interdisciplinary education researchers to derive variables for constructing a new model of education. The outcome of the Internet survey revealed that 100% of the participants agreed that education must change and that teacher training must improve. Variables from the cross-disciplinary data contributed to the construction of an integrated model of multilingual education consisting of four primary models and other models to serve as tools for designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment as well as determining demographics and student meta-analysis of language abilities and storage in the brain. The first model emerged from the data to offer multilingual principles of education. The other primary models are macro, meso, and micro models. The macro model represents schools, instruction, assessment, and the curriculum cycle. The meso model depicts the developmental domains of the individual learner and includes a cyclical equation. The micro model delineates multilingual processing in the brain based on neurolinguistic research, variables from the current study, and Kees de Bot's bilingual adaptation of Levelt's language processing model. Recommendations include the incorporation of notional-functional pragmatic-aesthetic concepts as depicted in the models developed for the study and enhanced by input from published researchers with unique language and research repertoires who were located on four continents.

Rainwater Harvesting in Kenya - How Do Institutions or Policies Hinder or Promote Rainwater Harvesting?

by Manuel Berger

Critical thinking takes a holiday, or BC's Minister of Education visits Twitter

by Tobey Steeves

BC’s Minister of Education, George Abbott, recently participated in his second public outreach campaign via Twitter... more BC’s Minister of Education, George Abbott, recently participated in his second public outreach campaign via Twitter (archived at http://t.co/mQjubB7b).In this session, which focused on personalized learning and the newly released BCedplan (bcedplan.ca), the minister had the opportunity to field questions from parents, teachers, administrators, and anyone else interested enough to ask. It is notable that 17 of the minister’s comments were expressions of agreement with others’ statements. This suggests that the minister’s agenda may have been more focused on scoring political points than in meaningfully engaging with the issues BC’s schools face. To explore this issue further, I would like to highlight the distance between the minister’s rhetoric and substantive analysis. In so doing, I hope to illustrate the importance of critical thinking, and demonstrate the thinness of thought that appears to guide BC’s Ministry of Education.

The how and why of academic collaboration: disciplinary differences and policy implications

by Jenny Lewis

Published in Higher Education
Co-authored with Sandy Ross and Thomas Holden
(DOI: 10.1007/s10734-012-9521-8)

A feltételes készpénz-transzferek hatásai

by TARKI Social Research Institute

Medgyesi Márton a TÁRKI vezető kutatójanak előadása a Haza és Haladás Alapítvány szakpolitikai konferenciáján a... more Medgyesi Márton a TÁRKI vezető kutatójanak előadása a Haza és Haladás Alapítvány szakpolitikai konferenciáján a feltételes készpénz-transzferek hatásairól.

The open education evidence hub: a collective intelligence tool for evidence based policy

by Robert Farrow

De Liddo, Anna; Buckingham Shum, Simon; McAndrew, Patrick and Farrow, Robert (2012). The open education evidence hub: a collective intelligence tool for evidence based policy. In: Cambridge 2012: Joint OER12 and OpenCourseWare Consortium Global 2012 Conference, 16 - 18 April 2012, Cambridge, UK

This paper considers a Collective Intelligence approach to collating the evidence needed to support policy in open... more This paper considers a Collective Intelligence approach to collating the evidence needed to support policy in open education. A tool, called the OER Evidence Hub, provides an infrastructure for the OER community to collect examples and data of OER effectiveness and use and then supports the community and others such as policy makers with a community generated knowledge base to help decision making. We describe the Evidence Hub concept and features, present figures on user engagement, and discuss the results of initial user testing. We also show through examples how content can be seeded into the OER Evidence Hub, and illustrate the way in which it has captured exemplars identified by a particular community, the OER Advocacy group. Finally we discuss general issues and future strategies for building effective Collective Intelligence platforms for Open Education and other purposes.

Editorial of a Special Issue on 'Race' and Culture

by Kevin Hylton

Journal of Policy Research in Tourism Leisure and Events 2011

Eds
K.Hylton
N.Chakrabarty

This special issue emerged out of debates amongst UK Critical Race Theorists’ (CRT) concerns with transdisciplinarity.... more This special issue emerged out of debates amongst UK Critical Race Theorists’ (CRT) concerns with transdisciplinarity. Pragmatic transdisciplinary work encourages the cross fertilisation of fields/contexts and therefore ideas. For CRT, this means centring issues of ‘race’, racism and anti-racism with other intersecting forms of oppression in and across fields where this has not been a regular practice (Rath, 2007). The diverse, international and globalised nature of tourism, leisure and events are increasingly subject to such tensions and contradictions. Identities and cultural constructs are chal- lenged, perpetuated and reconstructed dependent upon the hegemony of domi- nant, residual and emergent ideas. Further, the location of ‘race’ and culture within these fields are intriguingly marginal and due for robust consideration and debate, especially in the context of policy formation. The tendency for many of our traditional cognate disciplines is to pursue the DNA of popular ideas and topics which become limited by de facto epistemologies and therefore sites of contestation. These patterns have been evidenced in many fields from law to education, sport and leisure. In this issue, ‘race’ and culture are centred as a mutual starting point for contributors in history, tourism, travel writing, events, the arts and heritage.

Which Global Prospect to Bet on: Rosy or Gloomy

by Vahid V. Motlagh

Journal of Futures Studies, December 2011, 16(2): 149 - 154

A reasonable metaphor to perceive the nature of upcoming developments is the cycle of seasons. This implies that in... more A reasonable metaphor to perceive the nature of upcoming developments is the cycle of seasons. This implies that in the
Halal-Marien (2011) debate the probabilities of the Rosy and Gloomy scenarios in the long run are more than 70% and less than 30% respectively. Scholars and activists should aim at the inner world of individuals in any global solutions for fast-forwarding to the Rosy scenario. In other words, people
should have and encourage others to adopt an unshakable belief in the possibility of a better world.

Urban freight modelling and policy analysis

by marcucci edoardo

Evidence‐based policy or policy‐based evidence gathering? Biofuels, the EU and the 10% target

by Amelia Sharman

Co-authored with John Holmes (University of Oxford).  Published in Environmental Policy and Governance, Volume 20, Issue 5, pages 309–321, September/October 2010.

The 2009 Renewable Energy Directive mandates EU member-states' road transport fuel to comprise a minimum of 10%... more The 2009 Renewable Energy Directive mandates EU member-states' road transport fuel to comprise a minimum of 10% renewable content by 2020. This target is expected to be met predominantly from biofuels. However, scientific evidence is increasingly questioning the ability of biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when factors such as indirect land-use change are taken into consideration. This paper interrogates the 10% target, critically assessing its political motivations, use of scientific evidence and the actions of an individual policy entrepreneur who played a central role in its adoption. We find that the commitment of EU decision-making bodies to internal guidelines on the use of expertise and the precautionary principle was questionable, despite the scientific uncertainty inherent in the biofuels debate. Imperatives located in the political space dominated scientific evidence and led to a process of ‘policy-based evidence gathering’ to justify the policy choice of a 10% renewable energy/biofuels target. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Urban Freight Modelling and policy analysis

by marcucci edoardo

Methods for Scenario-building: it’s importance for policy analysis

by António B. Moniz

published as “Scenario-Building Methods as a Tool for Policy Analysis" in B. Rihoux and H. Grimm: Innovative Comparative Methods for Policy Analysis. Beyond the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide , New York, Springer, 2006, pp. 185 - 209.

A scenario is a policy analysis tool that describes a possible set of future conditions. The most useful scenarios... more A scenario is a policy analysis tool that describes a possible set of future conditions. The most useful scenarios (for corporations, for policy decision makers) are those that display the conditions of important variables over time. In this approach, the quantitative underpinning enriches the narrative evolution of conditions or evolution of the variables; narratives describe the important events and developments that shape the variables. In terms of innovative methods for policy analysis, the foresight and scenario building methods can be an interesting reference for social sciences. Some examples of these exercises will be present in this paper, either related to vision in science and technology developments, social and technological futures, or related to aggregated indicators on human development. Two cases (Japan and Germany) are held on behalf the ministries of science and education (respectively, MEXT and BMBF), and another with the support of United Nations.

ECONOMIC SITUATION OF DAIRY FARMERS IN DIFFERENT PRODUCER PRICES SCENARIO (Sytuacja ekonomiczna gospodarstw zajmujących się produkcją mleka w różnych scenariuszach zmian cen produktów rolnych)

by Artur Wilczyński

Language: Polish

Public Health and Average Health Status: Do Health Inequalities Matter? (Panayotov Matrix)

by Jordan Panayotov

[ Presented on several international forums since October 2004 ]

Any policy, program or intervention is decision for resource allocation. Whatever intervention is implemented there... more Any policy, program or intervention is decision for resource allocation. Whatever intervention is implemented there are winners - people who benefit of it, and losers - people who benefit less or nothing at all, or are even worse off compared to their previous situation. Therefore there are always opposing interests – who will benefit more. Choices, or prioritizing competing demands, are inevitable, since resources are limited and less than the needs. However, maximizing individuals' health is not the same as maximizing health of whole populations, although that population is sum of individuals. Having losers de facto means that some claims of the recipients are declined. The question is:
“Which claims will be declined?” and more importantly:
“On what basis some claims will be declined?”

Around the world decision-makers are puzzled – What is best for improving health of populations: increasing average health status, or decreasing health inequalities? Is there interdependence between health gain and health equity? This article is about theoretical investigation of the correlation between average health status and health inequalities. How they relate one to another, why they relate the way it is observed empirically, how would different interventions impact them? Focusing on improvement in average health status can mask widening of health inequalities. This situation, where health gain and health equity are not interdependent, has supporters, as it complies with Kaldor-Hicks criterion for efficiency. However, does it comply with declared by the society ethics that people, irrespective of their personal characteristics, are of equal value? The right of an individual to the highest attainable health should not be achieved by denying this right to others. Therefore different approach is needed when allocating resources in public health.

This article provides a useful tool for researchers, decision-makers and local practitioners to: explain and analyse empirical findings; make predictions about future developments of average health status and health inequalities; make proper choices for policies, programs and interventions in line with the goals of WHO and public health.

Key words: Health Inequalities, Evidence-Based Policy, Social Determinants of Health, Health Impact Assessment, Priority Setting, Decision-Making, Average Health Status, Health Disparities

Suggested Citation: Panayotov J., "Public Health and Average Health Status: Do Health Inequalities Matter? (Panayotov Matrix)", ICARE, 08 August 2008

Understanding Performance Incentives in Postsecondary State Policy: The Case of Louisiana.

by Lindsey Jakiel